Venom: Lethal Protector
by The Alpha Gray Wolf
Summary: Eddie Brock, a renowned journalist, loses everything and enters a depression until a strange black substance finds him and they work together to stop a murderous symbiote bonded to the mass murdering, Cletus Kasady himself. Set in an alternate universe on Earth-192322, acts as a parallel universe to the actual Venom movie and its sequels.
1. Zuerst

**Disclaimer: I only own the stuff I made up. The rest belongs to Marvel, song artists, etc.**

* * *

**Starring Tom Hardy as Eddie/Venom, Michelle Williams as Anne/She-Venom, and Woody Harrelson as Kasady/Carnage**

**Eddie Brock, a renowned journalist, loses everything and enters a depression until a strange black substance finds Eddie and they work together to find and stop a murderous symbiote bonded to the mass murderer, Kasady himself. Set in an alternate universe on Earth-192322, acts as a parallel universe to the actual **_**Venom **_**movie and its sequels.**

* * *

Eddie Brock ran a hand through his brown hair as he prepared himself for the interview of a lifetime as he described it. He made sure his pencil was sharpened and that his notes were in proper order. As he walked through the cells of San Quentin, the guard escorting him told him everything thing there was to know about the prisoner codenamed, 'Red.' Eddie already jotted down notes on him ahead of time, but he felt like there was still more to learn about Red. Killed his dog with a drill, pushed his grandmother down a flight of stairs, killing her, setting fire to an orphanage (allegedly), digging up his deceased mother (most likely due to his Oedipus Complex syndrome, something that greatly disgusted Eddie), and pushed a girl in front of bus after she declined going out with him. He had no patterns on who he killed, which made it very difficult for him to track, or even predict.

Eddie knew what his objective was and it was to interview Cletus Kasady due to his request and so the FBI can look for the one hundred and thirty-two buried bodies. (One hundred and thirty-two was also Kasady's confirmed kill count) Eddie was going to be sick upon stepping into the same room with a mass murderer, but he pushed his sickness back down his stomach and walked into the room with a cell in the center.

"Let's do this," Eddie said to himself and sighed before he finally spoke up, succeeding in hiding the nervousness in his voice. "Hey, Cletus," he called out to the redheaded prisoner with his back turned to Eddie. He was dressed in a straight jacket colored white, his arms wrapped together, but there was blood on his calf area and he was using that blood to write 'Welcome Eddie' on the wall. Eddie's eyes open upon seeing the message and he almost forgot what to say. It took him a few seconds before he regained his composure and said, "I see you've already decorated for me."

"Hi, Eddie," a deep, Brooklyn accent voice spoke as the serial killer looked over his shoulder to meet Eddie with a grin. He shifted in his seat and licked his lips ravenously. "You look...delicious enough to eat."

"I'm sure," Eddie replied dryly, trying not to sound scared in any way possible. In a way, he had no idea if he was just mocking him, or being very literal. Nothing in his profile stated that he practiced in cannibalism. _Then again,_ this is a man who went insane for seemingly no reason at all and seemingly kills for no reason at all other for the sake of it. Eddie wasn't going to defend Kasady in any way and not say that he was a cannibal.

"You know what a human eyeball taste like?" Kasady asked, feigning innocence. "It's juicy. Like a grape and lemon mixed together." He makes slurping sounds and sticks his tongue out at Eddie, pretending to be licking something. "Mmm, tasty, tasty, tasty. Crunchy on the outside, gooey on the inside."

"You're a cannibal," Eddie voiced in disgust, feeling his breakfast from earlier welling up inside his stomach. "You make me sick." He still had no idea if he was being serious or just mocking him.

"I'm sorry," Kasady raised his cuffed hands in surrender mockingly. "I'll be a good boy. I'll turn the serial killer off unless you say differently."

"That would be a pleasant idea," Eddie humored the criminal. "Why an interview? Why?"

"It's kinda tough to see you in this light." Kasady leaned forward in his chair and squinted while sucking air through his teeth. Eddie's face was hidden in the shadows. He looked at the light above him and gestured for Eddie to move up. "Why don't you make it easier and come over here?"

Eddie knew exactly what he was doing, but he was doing everything in his power to make sure that Kasady would comply and give him his interview for himself, and the location of the buried bodies for the FBI and poor families for their loss. "If it helps," he states before pausing to take a step forward into the light, his face becomes slightly visible through the shadows. "Better?"

"A lot better," Kasady complied with a hint of sadism in his voice. "Now I can see the face of the next man whose eyeballs' I'm going to eat."

"I would like to see you try," Eddie challenged. "And I'm not afraid of you just because you're tied up and in a cell."

"Wow," Kasady beamed like a psycho. "Look at the little piggy standing up to the big, bad wolf. If our roles were reversed, then I would be huffing and puffing until I blew these bars down."

"Look, Cletus," Eddie said in a calm voice, trying to be as civil as possible to the mass-murdering psychopathic serial killer. "I came here for an interview and I would hate to agitate you."

"Why?" Kasady suddenly asked as he yanked the chains around his limbs. "I mean, I can turn on and off the serial killer mode if you want so you can look into the eyes of a true madman."

"I've seen a madman before." It was not entirely true. The only real 'madman' that Eddie Brock has ever seen was on this one fictional DC comic movie called _The Dark Knight_. There was a sick and twisted chaotic clown in there called 'The Joker.' He saw the movie and thought that Heath Ledger gave an unbelievable performance for playing Joker. _Rest in peace, Heath Ledger._

"In that case, I think I'll turn on the serial killer mode since you are so familiar with him."

"No," Eddie halted. "That won't be necessary. I just want to do this interview with you. I want the location of all the people that you killed and buried. I am curious, and the FBI is curious."

"Of course they are," Kasady said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I mean, I want to tell you, but me, I don't like saying where my victims are out loud. So, if you can give me a pen, I can write it down for you."

"You really expect me to fall for something like that? You just want to use this pen to stab into my wrist."

"The thought hasn't crossed my mind, _Eddie..._but the idea….sounds..._attractive_."

Eddie now knew what the face of a true madman looked like. Cletus Kasady was looking at him with the widest grin he could give. His eyes were half-open, eyes piercing his soul as they gazed into his own. Eddie almost backed away, but pride overcame fear and personal safety and froze him in his face. "If you think I'm going to allow you to talk to me like this, then you are horribly wrong. I know you want the fame of being interviewed, and if you even so much as threaten me, then I'm just going to leave and the FBI can find the bodies all themselves and you won't be taking any credit."

"Oh man," Kasady growled in rage. "Now, I'm really going to kill you. I promise you, on my life, when I get out of here, and I _will_ get out of here, then…." Kasady tilted his head to the side as he smiled evilly at Eddie. "I'm going to unleash _carnage_ upon you and every single person you love."

* * *

Several weeks have passed since Eddie has interviewed Cletus Kasady for the bodies and the interview of a lifetime. He broadcasted his report on his show, _The Eddie Brock Report_, and it was received critical acclaim for his bravery to walk up to Cletus Kasady. Even though Cletus Kasady was put away behind bars, he was still called for trial. Cletus Kasady openly claimed that he was insane and can't control himself, but a lot of people, mostly the families of the people that he killed, were saying that he was a personification of evil and that he needed to be put to death.

Anne Weying-Brock, Eddie Brock's wife, was the lawyer testifying against Cletus Kasady. Eddie Brock stood on the witness stand, glaring intently at the tied up ginger in the chair.

"Cletus Kasady is not insane," Anne told the jury as she presented a document to them with a list inside. "Mr. Kasady is responsible for the deaths of over one hundred people. He buried their bodies and he claims to eat parts of their bodies. He doesn't deserve to walk the streets; he is evil."

Eddie was waiting for his wife to walk up to him and ask if he had any evidence that proved that Cletus Kasady deserved the death sentence. Much to his disbelief, Eddie saw Kasady's body going limp and his eyes close, indicating that he fell asleep. He actually fell asleep during his own trial for his life.

"Look at him," Anne gestured to the sleeping Kasady. "He fell asleep, just when I was explaining my point. Evil has no fear for the outcome of their life and they embrace it." She opens up the document and presents a list of behaviors that Kasady presented to himself and others. "Cletus Kasady has attempted non-depressed suicidal attempts on two separate occasions with the same gun, which is a .38 caliber. Another witness has reported that Cletus Kasady has committed a series of surgical masochism on his arms, legs, and stomach when there was nobody left alive for him to torture. A third witness - an eleven-year-old female living in Sacramento - reported that Cletus Kasady used a blowtorch to burn the hair off of her scalp. No 'sane' insane man would do something like this. What Cletus Kasady is, is a mass murderer who deserves life in prison with no chance of parole or the death sentence. Anybody with a heart can see that Cletus Kasady is evil walking on two legs. The families of his victims suffer every day because this monster abducts them, kills them in grotesque ways and bury them in concrete. You all know the right thing to do. My witness here has had a conversation with Kasady and he can back up my defense against the psychopath."

Eddie had been preparing himself for this. He rubbed his hands together and spoke in the mic for the court to hear. The sudden loud noises woke Kasady up and he wiped the sand out his eyes. "What'd I miss?" he said in a nasal tone.

Eddie smacked his lips before he leaned into the mic. "When I was doing the interview with Mr. Kasady, the prisoner displayed homicidal tendencies, made threats towards me and my family, and all the way through was smiling. Even though he was behind bars, in a straight jacket and everything, Kasady had that glare that could pierce any man in the soul into fear. I think that he does not belong in society and ridding him would be doing a favor for everybody. In case it was relevant, I recorded his conversation with me and permission to play it."

"If you must," the judge approved.

Eddie nodded in satisfaction and placed the tape inside a tape recorder on the edge of the table. The tape recorder he brought by himself. He played the conversation that he had when he initially met Cletus Kasady.

_I'm going to unleash carnage upon you and every single person you love._

The tape was paused there as Anne rested her case. "He made open threats to unleash _carnage_ on my witness and his family. He is a threat to society and he needs to deal with immediately."

"He's insane," Eddie backed up. "Kasady doesn't belong in society. _I_ rest my case."

The jury members looked to each other and began whispering to each other for their final conclusion. Eddie and Anne cast glances at each other with smirks, confident that with the evidence he presented and Anne presented, Kasady would be put away or put to death.

The lead juror - Donna Diego - was a tall woman with shoulder-length red hair. "Your honor, the jury has looked over the evidence and we have reached a decision." She looks over to one juror to hand her a field report on Cletus Kasady. "Based on this field report given to us by an observational psychologist, Cletus Kasady exhibits symptoms of delusion, split personality, and despite the eyewitness of several people, shows no signs of being a sociopath or a psychopath. Granted, he still suffers no control over his actions due to Mr. Brock confirming himself that Kasady suffers from insanity, we have decided, in our own opinion, mine included, that Cletus Kasady has no true control over his action and presents more danger to himself than to others. Prison is not the best choice for him and he should be sent to a mental asylum to get help."

Now the courtroom was silenced. Eddie and Anne's jaws dropped as the verdict processed in their minds clearly. He could not believe what he just heard and he was unable to speak. He stood in the same room as Cletus Kasady and he felt an evil presence. He was not insane, he was evil. He displayed clears signs of a psychopath when he was in the room with him, but when the psychologists come in to observe him, he must've turned off his 'serial killer' mode. That lead Eddie to only one conclusion: Kasady knows how psychologists operate and he was using that to his advantage to outsmart the therapy tests to prove that he was insane and needed help.

Eddie realized that he made the mistake himself of saying that Kasady was insane and the jury members misinterpret this. The crowd seemed to pick up on this because all eyes in the room turned to him, glaring daggers for inadvertently saving Kasady from a life/death sentence. The icing on the cake, this trial was being broadcast for his show and the two hundred thousand viewers watching were going to hate Eddie for his mistake.

_That one kid in New York, my fan, if he's watching this, then what is he thinking?_

Eddie could just feel the hatred boiling up within the crowd. They were mad at him and so were the fans that were watching this at home. The cameraman got exceptional footage of the judge sentencing Cletus Kasady to life without parole in a mental asylum until he is proven sane by thirteen psychologists. Eddie's embarrassment caught up with him as his face turned blood red.

The court was over and everyone was dismissed. As Eddie sat on a bench in the main hallway to wait to his wife, he drummed his finger on the armrest. A homeless man in a dirty trench coat sat next to him and looked at Eddie awkwardly. "Hey, are you that Eddie Brock guy?"

"Not anymore," Eddie replied without thinking but stated what he was emotionally feeling. "I think I just may have saved the serial killer of the twenty-first century from death. It was broadcasted even."

Anne came out of the room, her blond hair a mess, Eddie knew that meant that she grabbed her hair out of anger. She glared at her husband as she closed the wooden door. "Hello, _Eddie."_

Eddie sensed the venom within Anne's voice and jumped to his feet in hopes to explain himself. "Anne, I'm sorry for what I said. I didn't really mean like he was 'insane' insane, but that he was 'insane' sane. The jurors completely misinterpret what I said."

"Or maybe you just said it the wrong way," Anne rebutted. She didn't bother stopping to look at Eddie as she moved forward. Eddie followed and Anne predicted this. "You said your statement the wrong way and now you let a serial killer go off scot-free."

"But what about the evidence from the psychologists?" Eddie remembered and tried suggesting. "They all said that he was insane and he had no control so that could've backed up the jury's opinion."

"But you backed them up even more. They had files stating that he was crazy and your statement sealed the deal. I lost my job because of you." She walked out through the front doors, Eddie close behind her and still desperate to try and prove his own innocence.

"Look, I spent ten minutes in a room with that man. If I can go make my corrections with your agency, then maybe the right thing can be done and Kasady can go to jail."

"That's not going to work,' Anne stopped him. "They said, 'because you are unable to defend this city from the most hated serial killer of the country, then we should find someone who knows how to testify against a serial killer in court.' Those were the exact words of my boss on the phone."

All the pain in Eddie for letting Kasady go was suddenly replaced with guilt for his position with Anne. He had gotten Anne fired from her job as a district attorney and it hurt him. "Anne," his voice cracked with shakiness. "I'm sorry. I am so sorry for everything." He looked down to the ground in shame and shook his head in self-disappointment. "I'm sorry I cost you your job, I'm sorry I gave Kasady the benefit of the doubt, I'm sorry for not being the husband that you deserve."

Anne was on the verge of crying herself, the dam-building up inside of her threatening to break free. She shut out these emotions by unlocking her car, getting in, and locking Eddie out. He ran to the passenger door and tried to open it, only to find it locked. He knocked on the window in a rhythmic way to get her attention. Anne acknowledged Eddie by glancing over her shoulder to look at the crying Eddie, and the only thing she said was, "I'm sorry."

"You're going to lock me out of the car over a little accident I made? I think you're overreacting."

"It's not that," Anne argued. "This has nothing to do with what you did in the courtroom. I forgive you for what you have done."

"Then what is it?" Eddie begged. He showed her his wedding ring on his finger. "I've had this ring on my finger for three years and never have I taken it off. Never have I taken it off because I want to stay honest, trustworthy, and fidelity towards my wife whom I love so much. If it isn't about what I said or you losing the job, please tell me, I deserve to know that at least. Whatever it is, I promise I won't judge you or leave you for it."

Anne tried saying what was on her mind, but it was like trying to lift water at this point. She wiped her tears away and turned her head to face her husband completely - he most likely wasn't going to be her husband after what she has to say. "I'm seeing somebody else."

Eddie's heart stopped beating as the words sink into him like an anchor. He made sure that what he heard was correct: His wife, whom he had been married to for three years, was seeing somebody else other than Eddie himself. "You," he said before swallowing down a sob. "Were cheating on me?"

"Yes," Anne said, somewhat without hesitation. "I didn't want to tell you because I was afraid of you would react. I felt so guilty over it."

Eddie backed away from the car, suddenly feeling even sicker than he ever felt before. He grabbed his hair with force, causing himself pain. Today has been the worst day of his life. The worst day of his life started this morning when he ran out of coffee, so he went to work tired today. Then, his car broke down and he had to get it towed. Third of all, he was called to a trial without any warning, fourth of all is when he aid the wrong thing to the oblivious jurors. He humiliated himself on his own live show and to top it all, the cake with the most icing on the top, his wife cheated on him.

Eddie looked down at the wedding ring on his finger and groaned in sadness. With shaky fingers, he licked his finger and slid the ring off. To him, that wedding meant everything. He thought that Anne was the love of his life, but he was horribly wrong. He didn't want to be with a woman who slept with another man. Eddie would've thrown it away out of spite, but he was civil instead of wrathful. He tapped on the passenger window and Anne lowered it.

"I want a divorce," Eddie said with sadness before handing the ring to Anne. "I hope your new boyfriend likes the ring. I've kept that ring in my wallet for two years when we started dating.

"Can't we talk about this?"

"Talk about what? I want a divorce," Eddie insisted but kept his rage under control. "Today has been the most backward, worst, horrible day of my life. If you are going to defend yourself in court, considering that you no longer work in courts, then I pray to God that you find an excellent defense lawyer. Find someone who has proved murderous criminals innocent and try to get him to convince the jury why we should still be together. I really hope that happens because I deserve better than this. I could've cheated on you, I could've gone out with this cute girl who works in my office, but I didn't because I'm a faithful husband and I am wearing a ring around my finger. I _was_ a faithful _husband_. There were fights here and there, disagreements and whatnot, but I never hurt you in any way that was intentional and long-lasting other than ruining your career as a district attorney." Eddie backs away from the window and looks out to the distance. The world suddenly became smaller.

"Can't we just talk about this, Eddie?" Anne sobbed as Eddie got farther and farther away from the vehicle. She called out to him several times in vain desperate attempts to get back the man she truly loves.

"You brought this on yourself, Anne!" Eddie shouted. "I want a divorce and I will be setting a date. I want to meet your lover and I want to get a confession from him. What's his name?"

"Dan Lewis..."

"And what is he?"

"A doctor."

"A doctor?!" Eddie calmed himself before he nodded in understanding. He remembered when they first started dating - or maybe it was before - Anne asked Eddie if he wanted to be a doctor and Anne showed a keen interest in becoming a doctor but ultimately settled on becoming a district attorney. Eddie could honestly care less about Dan Lewis, only one thing: "Does he know?" When Anne choked on her answer and her answer was slightly impaired of being heard, Eddie asked again but elaborated this time. "Does Dan know that you are married? Does Dan know that you have a husband?"

"He knows," Anne admits.

Eddie's rage was boiling up within him, and despite the fact that he was angry at Anne, he refused to allow himself to express physical anger towards her, only speaking what was on his mind instead of making threats. "Did you tell Dan...or did he find out?" The former was the answer. "When you told Dan, did these affairs keep happening? Did you continue to lay with him even after the disclosed fact that you are married and your husband is still alive?"

"Eddie, let's not do this…" she desperately begged.

Eddie wasn't going to let her get away with it that easily. "You don't get to throw a grenade and run away Anne," Eddie uttered. "You can't expect to say please when you don't want to confess something and expect to get away with it completely. I just want the truth; I have been faithful to you and I want to know if there is still a little bit of faith within you. Now I'm going to ask one more time: Did you continue to lay with Dan after telling him about me?"

The air between the two was suddenly filled with dread. Each one of the Brocks in a stand-off, their eyes gazing into the other's eye, looking for an answer or some kind of reaction. Eddie wasn't going to talk, and he basically backed Anne into a corner, so she knew it would be useless trying to pull it off any longer because, at this point, it was very clear which way the wind was blowing. "Yes."

Just like that, Eddie's world shattered. He was standing there on the sidewalk, frozen, sadness painted across his face. He turns away as a tear descends down his cheek. He takes out a quarter from his wallet and puts it in a payphone. He would've used his cellphone, but his battery was dead. He punches in a number and calls one of his show assistants who had the day off.

"Mr. Michelinie, I know it's your day off, but could you please come to pick me up at the courthouse?"


	2. Zweite

**Warning: Suicide attempt in this chapter. Purely fictional and based off the comics and nothing else.**

* * *

A meteor, no bigger than the size of a basketball, plummets towards the earth, burning upon entering the atmosphere. The meteor falls through the black sky for about twelve minutes before it finally lands into the ocean near the Golden Gate Bridge. Sinking to the rock bottom, an oozy being detaches from the rock and swims towards the surface. When the meteor hit the ground, another oozy being removed itself from the space rock and tried catching up with the being above it. It was unsuccessful as the waves swept the ooze away and out in the distance, the initial ooze failing to notice.

The ooze surfaces and made its way towards one of the piers. It used its liquid-like form to stick up and climb up the pier like a spider, making its way all the way to the top.

* * *

Six months have passed, it was the second week of April. Actually, today was his twenty-sixth birthday and it was his first birthday after his official divorce in January. Eddie's life still had not taken a turn for the best. He was even more depressed than ever. No one recognized him anymore, lost his job, house, and can barely get a dollar or a can of ravioli and as a result, he went to bed in a sticky, unclean bed hungry almost every night. Eddie could no longer take any more of this and was ready. He looked at his watch and the current time was six-ten p.m., but the sun already set and it was nighttime.

This was the main reason why he was standing over the edge of the top of the Golden Gate Bridge. The tip of his shoes was half an inch over the edge. Eddie looked down as he leaned back against the railing, the ocean is no more than seven hundred and something feet below him. The wind was trying its hardest to knock him over, but he had his hands wrapped around the railing. He was inhaling and exhaling deeply as he contemplated his action.

"No one's going to miss me," he told himself aloud. "Anne might miss me, but she has Dan. Father won't miss me, and I am pretty sure that the fan in New York might miss me." He still wondered what was going on with that one kid in New York. That one boy in New York, he forgot what his name was, - started with a P - but that kid was the very last fan that he ever spoke to directly before getting on the plane to leave to San Francisco. Three days after making it into San Francisco and interviewing Kasady, two weeks pass and he goes on trial. The boy swears that he would see both the trial and interview, and if he did see both, he would wonder what the boy would think of him now.

"That's all in the past and doesn't matter anymore." He tightened his grip around the rails as he looked down. "No one is going to miss me for what I truly am. They'll only be sorry for me, or something else. But nobody is going to miss Eddie for Eddie."

Unknown from him, out of his eye line, the black ooze climbs to the top the pier and makes it all the way up to Eddie's position. It quietly crawls over to him like water, sensing and studying the human while it does. It didn't care much about this person, only that the host was a perfect match for symbiosis.

If anything, Eddie is more than a perfect host for the black symbiote. Eddie's blood type - A positive - his healthy immune system, and his working five senses made him compatible with all the requirements for the symbiote. It required a host to survive and from the looks of it, this man was about to commit suicide. If he didn't do anything about it, then they both were going to die.

It slithered like a snake over to Eddie's feet, climbing through the railing and up his shoes and pant legs.

Eddie wasn't going to wait another second. He sighs for one last time, takes one last breath of air, closes his eyes, and disconnects his hands from the railing. He plummets down to the ocean, letting his body go limp.

Meanwhile, the symbiote was entangling himself over Eddie's body, liquefying itself and entering his bloodstream through the membrane, working itself in its body to quickly do something so they both survive the fall. Eddie was lost in his thoughts, his entire life flashing before him as his weightless body carried him through the air.

He splashed into the water, Eddie's eyes remained closed and complete darkness overtaking him. Slowly, like a balloon descending, he sinks to the bottom of the ocean, not a single muscle moving, his life slowly being drawn away. He somehow survived the impact, but he was going to let himself drown. He couldn't feel the painful effects of a lack of air and he laid there peacefully and allowed himself to wait there to die slowly, yet painlessly and peacefully.

* * *

Eddie's eyes shot open and he gasped for air. He sits up and pants heavily like a hammer against his chest. He looks around him and sees that he was on land, laying on a field of green grass and that his jeans and sweater were soaked in ocean water. "What?" He wipes the water out his face with his hands then his elbow then proceeds to stand up and wander around aimlessly. "What just happened?" he inquired himself. "I fell from the top of the Golden Gate Bridge and I'm still alive and I have no broken bones?" He stomped his foot on the ground to convince himself that his bones were intact. "I'm wet, and I'm land. What the hell just happened to me?" He looked at his wet hands and grabbed his hair in confusion.

He moved over towards a tree and sat against it and focused on steadied his breathing. "Did I just cheat death?" A whole bunch of ideas ran through his mind on how he survived falling and drowning. "Ah man, this is nothing like _Final Destination._" One thought popped into his mind as a possible explanation and it made him look up into the sky. "Did _you_ save me?"

From a young age, Eddie was always a believer in God and _was_ even a Christian who went to church almost every Sundays. He hasn't been to one in a long time, not since his divorce. He remembered that as a Christian, you are not allowed to commit suicide so he began speculating that maybe _He_ spared him for trying to commit unholy suicide.

'_**Eddie,'**_ a voice in his head spoke to him. Eddie jumped a little in surprise followed by yelping in horror, looking around for the source. When he found nobody, he slapped himself several times hard across the face, turning his cheeks red.

"Can't be real," he told himself as he continued to slap himself. "Nothing but a voice in my head." He slaps himself harder and actually caused himself real pain. "OW!"

'_**Stop hurting yourself**_,' the voice urged again. _**'You're not the puppet master trying to hurt yourself, I'm the puppet master trying to make the puppet slap himself.'**_

Eddie collapsed to his knees painfully and held himself from falling forward by his hands. He buries his face into the grass and grips his wet and slick hair in frustration over the voice. "I must be hearing voices!" he shouted, but it came off a loud mumble due to his face being buried in the grass. "I must be hearing voices," he repeated his conclusion louder than the first time, his sentence become more clear. "The fall must've given me a concussion and I am hearing voices." He leaned back as he sat on his knees and chuckled over the speculation. "Nobody is talking to me, only myself."

'_**You are hearing voices, but you aren't hearing **__**voices.**_**'**

Eddie jumped to his feet and rubbed his temples. "This is not happening; I am not going schizophrenic."

'_**SCHIZOPHRENIC?!**_'

Eddie was launched far back into the tree and what felt like a weight pinned itself to Eddie's body and was crushing him like a rock crusher. Like trying to lift a car, Eddie turned from his struggle to pull his arm away from the tree. His arm just snapped back against the tree and he was sighing and panting in exhaustion. "I know that God isn't doing this."

'_**Not God,**_**'** the voice said once more. '_**But from what I gathered, you God is a true savior. My god is a fuck.**_**'**

Suddenly, something black was forming on Eddie's chest. He looked down with terror and his breathing quickened. The black ooze was taking the form of a black spider and a tendril extended and made a face on the end. This face looked Eddie in the eyes directly and it most certainly terrified him. This being had milky white eyes with no visible pupils, razor-sharp teeth with a smile that extended seemingly from ear to ear.

"What the hell are you?" Eddie asked quietly as fear vanished from within and was replaced with curiosity and even concern (if that was the right word to use).

"**I am Venom,"** the being said in a deep voice. **"And you...are mine."**

"What are you exactly?"

"**I am a Klyntar,"** Venom said proudly. **"From the planet, Klyntar. I am the 998th generation of my family's bloodline.**

"What?" Eddie shook his head upon hearing the name of the planet. "No such planet."

"**No such planet in **_**your**_** galaxy,"** Venom corrected. **"I am so happy to have found you, Eddie."**

Eddie tilted his head to the side, curious of the being even more now that he knew his name. "How do you know my name?"

"**I know everything about you, Eddie,"** he answered with hints of arrogance in his voice.** "I know everything about you, Eddie Brock. I dug inside your brain and it is dark in there and it smells like phenethylamine. That's what you humans call a brain chemical, right?"**

"Is that supposed to be a good thing?"

"**That brain chemical in there is..."** He stuck his tongue out and made several slurping sounds. **"Tasty."**

"Venom," Eddie acknowledged him by his name. "What do you want from me? What could an alien parasite possible want from me?"

"**What**," Venom began with literal venom in his voice. "**Did**. **You**. **Say?**"

"I said 'what could an alien parasite possible want with me?'" He then felt his chest starting to cave-in. He groans in pain but suppresses his cries of agony. He still groaned loudly like a truck through his teeth. "What did I say?"

"**You called me a parasite," **the being snarled. **"Don't ever call me a parasite. I don't consider my hosts expandable."**

"Okay then," Eddie immediately took the word back. "I'm sorry, not can you let me go?" he gasped. Venom released Eddie from the tree completely and he fell to his side on the ground with panting breaths. "Wow, if I had known that today was going to end with me, being saved from attempted suicide by an alien, then I would've shot myself in my own home."

"**But** **Eddie**," Venom begged to differ. **"You are too perfect of a host to throw away. I need you."**

"What? Why do you need me?"

Venom contemplated whether he should tell the truth, or make up some elaborate lie. Back on Klyntar, he was never really much of a competent liar nor skilled in deception and he figured that if Eddie wouldn't see right through him immediately, he would definitely suspect him of hiding something. He went with his gut and decided to tell Eddie the truth and plus, after digging around in Eddie's head, he figured that if Eddie refused, then he could use this secret piece of information inside Eddie's head to get what he wants. **"I need you to find my son."**

"Your son?" Eddie questioned.

"**Before you jumped off the bridge, I was on a rock floating through space, looking for planets that were inhabited with life so I can find and make up a mutual relationship between symbiote and host. On the plummet down to earth, I reproduced and my offspring must've been separated from me because I couldn't see him when I surfaced. Even as I'm saying this right now, I am terrified of my son's fate and I must find him. He is my firstborn."**

Eddie bowed his head in sympathy before nodding. He understood the symbiote's intention and the waves that Venom was sending in his brain indicated that Venom was telling the truth. One question ringing out his mind was what would happen after Venom found his son. He was given less time to think because Venom urged him by saying…

"**Making a decision already…"** he paused for a brief second before he put on his tough-guy facade. **"Dickhead."**

Eddie had flashbacks of his father being the one to ignore him when he was trying to impress him. That was the whole reason he got into journalism in the first place; to impress his father. He can't remember the last time he was praised and it pained him to know that if he just sat there on the ground and did nothing to help the first non-terrestrial newborn on this planet, then that offspring just may never receive any praise from its father and Venom seemed like he would be a great father. That was only one out of two reasons why he was thinking this.

The second reason he was doing this has a darker background to it that he wasn't ready to share with anyone, but he was pretty sure that from Venom poking around his mind, he knew already.

"I'll help you, Venom," Eddie promised. "I will help you find your son and I will try to help you with your new life here on Earth if you plan on staying."

* * *

At a mental asylum called Sanae.

Cletus Kasady leaned back against his cushioned cell wall. Despite the face that Kasady received the guilty by insanity sentence, he was still tied up in his own cell due to his masochism disorder. He just sat there in the corner and used a paperclip he snuck from one of the nurses and began cutting himself in the calves with it. He actually made himself bleed but the wounds weren't fatal. Once he produced enough flesh wound blood, he used the tip of his finger - albeit with difficult - to write on his cushioned wall. He wrote the words. Not just random words, but names that held some meaning to him.

Unhcegila, a mythical Lakota serpent responsible for the mysterious deaths and disappearances for many people.

Then he wrote, Ahriman, a spirit of destruction from the Persian myths.

The last name he wrote was what he believed his real names was: Fallen Angel.

Growing up an anti-social boy, he found strange comforts in a book reading about the creation of Heaven and Earth, but what he valued more and thought was more satisfying was how easy it was to corrupt good. To him, the only natural place that seemed to exist regardless of whatever happens is Hell and he believes that the destruction of Earth is inevitable.

He believed that he was a fallen angel expelled from Heaven itself to act upon the destruction of Heaven and Earth, and raise up the armies and legacies of Hell and the Destruction of Earth itself.

When he looked up, he saw some kind of red substance leaking down his wall from the barred window. It rolls down the wall like a drip of water and onto the ground.

The red symbiote reacts upon seeing the tied up prisoner in the corner. He looks at him with interest and scans his physiology. Blood type A negative, his exceptionally strong immune system, and his hypersensitivity made him the perfect host. He thought the human was going to scream upon seeing him, but no fear was detected with him, which made it easier for the red organism to wrap itself around Kasady's leg and crawl up until it wrapped him completely in the ooze.

The red symbiote dug through Kasady's mind to get a sense and feeling as to what kind of person that Kasady was. When he dug into his brain, he found out that Cletus Kasady was completely incapable of feeling remorse, the proudest thing he has ever done was hollow out a man's head with tweezers and Kasady's only goal in mind was pure carnage. The red symbiote was looking for some kind of sentimental love for its host's father so that it could cross over to him, but he found none and the red symbiote found itself unable to feel sad without its father. The only perfect host within range and he just had to be a serial killer who thinks he's the Antichrist or something.

"**What are you,"** the red symbiote asked inside Kasady's mind.

"The name's Cletus Kasady, but that is the question I should be asking you."

"**I don't know my real name,"** the symbiote spoke.** "I need a name. Will you give me a name?"**

Kasady was thinking in his mind, trying to come up with a name for the red friend wrapping itself around him. He wasn't trying to be funny or anything; he was trying to think of a name that would stick with the nameless being forever. Only one name came to mind, except it wasn't actually a name. It was just a word that he promised to unleash upon that one reporter and everybody that he loved. "Carnage."

"**Why?"** the now named red symbiote asked in confusion like a little child. **"Why such a name like that?"**

"Because that is what I want to unleash upon everybody in this freaking city," Kasady explained. "I want to take over the world and cause as much destruction as possible. I want to kill, kill, and kill."

Carnage tried shrugging off these thoughts coming from his host, but they were too powerful. He was still young and he was bonding to a fifty-eight-year-old mature serial killer. He attempted fighting off the mad man's thoughts, but they took over his mind like a plague. Despite the protests, Carnage was starting to take influence from the killer. He still tempted to shrug off the bad vibes, but they still infected him. The only piece of its former self was its desire to look for its father.

"Carnage," Kasady called quietly. "Why so sad all of a sudden? My thoughts were running through your brain and you are getting sad already? I can't be _that_ awful. Or maybe I _can_ be that awful."

"**I'm looking for somebody,"** Carnage stated to Kasady. **"I'm looking for my father. We got separated on our fall down here."**

" 'Down here,' are you some kind of alien?"

"**I'm a symbiote dependent on a host to survive. I am starting to like you, Cletus."**

"I'm starting to like the idea of an alien bonding to me."

"**Can you help me?"** Carnage remembered what his goals were. **"Can you help me find my father?"**

Kasady leaned back against the corner of the cushioned wall and smirked. "Why? Why should I help you? You claim you got separated from your father, but haven't you ever considered that maybe your father left you to die on purpose? Maybe your father never loved you or ever wanted you so he left you to die wherever you came from. I mean, you wouldn't be coming to me when you needed your father. What if your father left you to die because you were an embarrassment to him and he never loved you."

Those words hit Carnage on an emotional level. He was thinking back when he landed in the ocean. Venom just swam to the surface and didn't even notice Carnage, almost as if he was trying to leave him behind to die. It saddened Carnage over the thought of being abandoned by the one who brought him into this world in the first place. Venom probably wasn't even looking for him and that made all the sadness within him vanish and be replaced with the boiling rage laying dormant within Kasady.

Carnage growls in rage, almost crushing Kasady with his tendrils, as the final character traits of Kasady embedding themselves within his mind. Carnage sighed and mentally smiled. **"Leaving me behind to die, Daddy, I hate you. Why don't we show you the true meaning of carnage?"**

"I like that," he laughed. "I know a way how we can take over this city."

"**Me too,"** Carnage grinned. **"And it involves another symbiote already here on Earth."**

"You actually eat brains?" Eddie asked in disgust as he spoke to his symbiotic friend. "Are you going to eat my brains? Are you going to eat my insides out like on _Aliens?_" Eddie was walking over a small bridge over the water just several miles off the Golden Gate Bridge. The symbiote was telling him where to go, guiding him through telepathy instead of telling him directly. Eddie just obeyed, but he wasn't going there in silence. Venom had told him a lot about his planet, Klyntar, and it seemed like a place that he wouldn't want to go there. And it also appeared that 'parasite' had a double meaning back on his planet of origin. The first meaning was a being that was too dumb and expendable to have a host, while the second meaning meant that he was a lowlife scumbag thief who got hung by their throats in public.

Venom chuckled in amusement, finding extreme delight in Eddie's discomfort. **"If you were stupid and pathetic, then I would definitely eat your brains. Hell, I'm licking your brains right now and your brain tastes gross."**

Eddie cringed upon making himself clear of what he just heard his parasite say. "You are licking my brain, oh god."

"**Calm down, loser,"** Venom insulted. **"Your brain taste like dirt anyway."**

"Did you just call me a loser?" Eddie asked to make sure he was still hearing clear.

"**I did, don't feel bad my pariah."**

"Pariah, what the hell is a pariah?"

**"You are an outcast, Eddie,"** Venom reminded. **"You lost your job, wife, and your respect from your fans. I guarantee there is nobody in the entire world who wants to be a loser like you, Eddie, let alone be you."**

"Leave me alone," Eddie voiced in annoyance mixed with anger over the insult. "Let's not forget I know what makes you tick."

Venom chuckled in his head, and then he put on a Freddy Krueger voice as he said his next words: **"You've got the body, and I've got the brains."**

"Oh man, now you're imitating my worst nightmare?" Eddie slapped himself on the forehead. "What is wrong with me for having a fear like that. As soon as I help you with your goal, then I am so going to get you someone else to be your host."

"**I'm just kidding my second body. I don't want to be disconnected from you; you are way too perfect of a host. If anything, I will never find a better host than you."**

"You'll probably eat me when I'm dead. Once I am sick or something, you'll dispose of me like a worm and feed on my carcass like a hungry lion."

"**Tempting, Ed-Ed, but not my style. If we wanted to feed on your carcass, we would've done that already. No, we just want to be bonded to you, that's all. You are so far, our only good friend."**

"Glad to know, but I just want you to know that since I am planning on committing suicide, I give you permission to feed on my corpse."

"**That idea sounds really delicious, but we still need you walking on your two feet for now. And we should just about be up there in just a few more minutes."**

Eddie finished walking over the bridge and when he realized that he was standing in front of an insane asylum, he started heading back. "No way, Jose. I am not going to a crazy house."

"**My son back, remember, dickhead?"**

"I remember, but I do not want to go back in there. There is a serial killer inside waiting to tear me to shreds."

"**Don't worry, pussy,"** Venom reassured with an insulting voice. **"As long as I'm around, I can save you from danger. Learn to trust me, Eddie, because I'm the only person you met that actually wants to 'stick' with you."**

"Puns, at a time like this," he scolded. Venom influenced Eddie to walk towards the front gate against his will. "You don't love me for me, you only want my body so _you_ can live. There is no love in there."

"**I never said anything about love, you hopeless, romantic less, lovebird. My offspring is in the cell on the northeast corner of the building."**

"Okay," Eddie hushed as he moved through the gate before stopping to see a big hole in the walls of the asylum. There was a dead guard in the corner near the door, blood splattered all over him. Eddie ran over to the corpse and felt for a pulse. "Oh crap, somebody slaughtered them. Somebody must've slaughtered everybody."

"**Eddie,"** Venom warned of an incoming threat. **"People with guns in a van driving up. They look like they want to shoot us."**

Eddie turns around and sees two SWAT van pull up and about a dozen SWAT soldiers came out and aimed their guns at Eddie. The SWAT leader told Eddie to raise his hands and get down. Eddie tried to be civil as possible and raised his hands high above his head. The tingling feeling that Venom was sending through Eddie's head had him smiling like a happy camper.

"**Gentlemen, I don't want to hurt you, but if you do not leave, then things are going to get violent."** This wasn't Eddie talking, this was Venom talking with Eddie's voice to the SWAT officers. **"You have no idea what **_**we**_** can do and it is going to make you all piss your pants. I can't think of a better way to introduce myself."**

A white spider slowly starts to form across Eddie's chest.


	3. Dritte

The symbiote released itself through Eddie's skin, traveling through the membrane. The black ooze entangles itself before melting to Eddie's skin, starting from his waist and all the way up to his neck. His face was the last that was to be soaked in the ooze and Venom revealed himself to the SWAT officers for the first time and he finally took over his human completely for the first time.

Venom was at least six-four in height, weight over three hundred and fifty pounds, and all black. The mouth stretched from ear to ear, eyes were milky white, and in the center of its chest, was a white colored spider that stretched from his chest to his back like a mirror.

"**Twelve human scums, twelve brains. It's an all-you-can-eat buffet and all for me,"** Venom hissed. "**What to eat first."**

The SWAT officers fired at the creature. Venom absorbed the bullets like an ice pack and barely budged from his original position. Venom shot several web-like tendrils at the officers and yanked the weapons of the first officers' away. The webs pulled the guns to Venom and he took this moment to crumble their guns, roll them up into a ball and threw them at the officers. The first four officers were knocked unconscious and the eight other SWAT officers fired at Venom.

"**I've always preferred to hunt my prey."**

Venom jumps onto the wall, clinging like a spider, then fires several webs at the officers. Two officers were pulled forward and Venom catapulted himself towards them and kicked them away with his feet.

One of the six officers jumped onto Venom's back, the others hitting him with the stocks of their guns or police batons.

"**Now it **_**is**_** a party!"** Venom shoved the officers away, grabbed the one on his back and pulled him over his shoulder and hammers him into the ground like a club before swinging him like a bat towards the two officers to his left.

One of the shoved SWAT officers took out a grenade and threw it at the ooze creature. Venom caught the grenade in his mouth and swallowed it, the creature's biology absorbing the small explosion. Venom chuckled and mocked the cops. **"That's all you got, that tickled."**

He grabs two officers by the throat and holds them both high above his head. They took out their sidearms and fired into Venom's face. He once again absorbed the bullets and spat them out his organic ooze. **"Let's play a game," **he said after both cops ran out of ammo. **"It's called, 'Turning SWAT's brains into chilled monkey brains.'"**

The last soldier took out his sidearm and fired at Venom. He threw the two officers away and grabbed the last officer by the throat. He now raised him high above his head and stuck its tongue out, licking the officer's mask and goggles.

"No, Venom!" Eddie called from under the symbiote. "We do not eat officers!"

"**But we're hungry,"** Venom said innocently.** "Please?"**

"No! Put him down! We will not eat the officer's brain, do you understand?"

"**Whatever**," Venom growled before throwing him aside. **"Such a juicy steak for us and we have to let him go."** Then Venom spotted more police vans coming up and there was a whole lot more of them. Venom was on alert this time because there must've been over three dozen SWAT officers and they were all looking and aiming at the symbiote. "**What were the words that you were going to say before I took over?"** Venom mocked raised his hands in surrender. **"'Guys, you do not want to do this, trust me.' Is that what you were going to say?"**

"Venom, you need to learn some discipline."

"**They need to learn discipline for aiming guns at us."**

"They are just doing their jobs, don't hurt them."

They already started shooting at Venom, which only pissed him off more. "**Just doing their job, why don't we show them the hazards of their jobs?"**

Venom leaped into the air and pile drove into the ground near several officers. He dodged several gunshots from all directions with perfection, barely getting a scratch on him. He also used his abilities to melt into a liquid form of himself and use it to sneak attack unsuspecting officers.

Venom somersaulted off the ground, knocking an officer down in the process and leaped forward with both feet stretched out and connecting to another officer's jaw. Venom was now in a crouching position and he shot two lines of webbing out towards two officers and yanked them to the ground. The officer in between the two fallen officers shot at Venom, only to be kicked and go flying through the window of his SWAT van. Venom leaped forward and disappeared in the shadows.

"What is this thing?" one of the SWAT officers asked before snapping orders. "Get inside the building!"

A small group of SWAT officers went for inside the building while several SWAT officers checked around the van that the symbiote vanished behind; the others went to tend to the unconscious.

A SWAT officer took the blow of a door being shot off the hinges and sent him flying back. His teammates standing beside him fell unconscious when the steering wheel was thrown at his head and he fainted comically. The officers fired entire magazines into the van, only stopping when they individually ran out of ammo.

"Check it out to make sure that he's dead," the SWAT from earlier said. "I got your back."

"**And I got **_**your**_** back."**

The officer was shoved forward with intense force and went colliding with another officer and they both were disabled.

Venom jumped over the SWAT van and did a gainer move off of it, kicking a SWAT as far away as he possibly could.

The eleven remaining SWAT fired everything they had at Venom. He didn't bother dodging the bullets this time and just took them out through any creative means necessary like making a bat out of the web and swinging it or digging tendrils under the ground and hit the officers from behind with them. Either way, he cleaned out the eleven SWAT officers with ease and he felt proud of himself but left Eddie feeling guilty.

"**Now it's time for the main course,"** Venom cheered as he ran inside. Eddie then reminded him of the main reason they were here in the first place. **"Don't remind me, human. I remember why we are here, I'm just really hungry and I am craving some brains for dinner."**

"Don't even think about it," Eddie dared. "We do not eat brains because we are not cannibals."

"**You don't eat brains, but I do and right now, your brain is looking very juicy."**

Venom walked through the front door, seeing a massive pile of bodies on the ground, but no sign of the SWAT officers that came in. that must've meant that they were already at the cell where the person escaped. But if they suspected him to be an accomplice or something, then that automatically made Venom a target.

"**What if they are waiting up there for us?"** Venom asked curiously and innocently. **"How will we ever get the jump on them to protect ourselves?"**

"You can climb, right?" asked Eddie. "Nobody expects death from above and you can blend in the shadows and disarm them from above without harming them."

"**That sounds like a plan, Eddie."** Venom was quick to follow that plan and leaped high into the air and clung onto the ceiling like a spider. He crawled across the ceiling and hissed like a snake. **"I'm glad I'm wearing the right symbol."**

"Why a spider?" Eddie questioned.

"**You may not believe this, Eddie Brock, but we symbiotes have last names too. My family's last name is Arachnid."**

"So your full name is Venom Arachnid? Is 'Venom' short for something?"

"**Venomous,"** he answered with proudness in his voice along with a hiss. **"Venomous Arachnid. My father was Tarantula Arachnid and my mother was Fangs Arachnid. This spider is our symbol and we decided to give ourselves the physiology of a spider. You like it, no?"**

Eddie was having a few minutes to process what he heard. Venom's planet, the Klyntar, appeared to be just as civilized as Earth way. The people there have mothers and fathers, last names, and they want to bond with hosts to survive or something. But one thing that got Eddie puzzled was Venom's offspring upbringing.

"**Where's your female partner? If you have a son, where's his mother?"**

"**He has none," **Venom answered with some hint of sadness in his voice. **"When I was in my mother's womb, I originally had a twin sister, by our symbiotic nature absorbed into one and out came me. I can reproduce asexually because I have a little bit of my sister in me. This only applies to symbiotes who were amalgamated with their twin sisters, but the others reproduce the same way you reproduce: Putting your parts in different places. I can still reproduce sexually though."**

"Wow…" Eddie said in awe. "A Klyntar biology lesson. How intriguing." In truth, Eddie was slightly disgusted. "Let's just go save your son."

Venom crawled a little faster across the ceiling and into the shadows. He looked down below him to see about thirteen SWAT officers all lined up at one cell. Venom's senses were telling him that his offspring was inside the cell. **"Hang on my son."**

He crawled across the ceiling until the thirteen SWAT officers were directly underneath his position about forty feet down. He plants his feet firmly against the wall and stands up upside down on the wall. He was about ready to kick some SWAT officers' ass in about two seconds. **"We are going to bite their heads off, put their brains on a stove and roast them like a medium-rare steak."**

"Venom, we will get you something to eat, I promise, but you are not eating anybody!" Eddie ordered. "You've got the body, but I've got the brains."

A SWAT officer aimed his flashlight up to see the Venom creature. He had a split second to react before Venom shoot webs at the gun and the other guns as well and yanked them up, disarming the officers. "Knock them out, Venom, don't eat them!"

Venom jumped down and in between the unarmed officers. **"Time to tango!"**

He kicks the closest officer across the face before grabbed the next closest one and throwing him in the air to web him to the ceiling. The SWAT officers attacked their adversary with their sidearms and batons.

He jumps into the air and kicks an officer back and he crashes into a wooden bench. Whilst still in the air, he punches two more officers across the face with one punch connecting to both of them and they both fall flat on their sides hard. Even when he was about to hit the ground in a split second, he still managed to headbutt one more officer in the chest and sent him flying across the hall.

Venom was moving far too fast for the officers to predict and they barely could get a glimpse of him. The seven remaining SWAT began panicking in fear.

One of them was kicked in the jaw and went flying over the heads of the other SWAT officers and crashing into the ground. The one beside him tried dodging a punch, only for him to be punched in the air with an uppercut and do a backflip in the air before landing on his stomach.

The five officers fired all their bullets at Venom. The alien launched a web at one of the officers, punched another unconscious, and grabbed the webbed one to throw him into the air and landing through a window leading into an empty cell.

As cowardly as they may seem, two out of the three remaining SWAT officers tried running away. The one who stayed behind was webbed to the wall and the other two were hunted down by Venom before they could even make it nine feet.

Venom dived forward with his arms launched out and grabbed both the retreating officers by their belts and yanking them to a stop and then proceeding to flip them over his head and have them crash onto a fallen glass picture.

Venom gazes at the thirteen defeated SWAT officers and roars in triumph. **"Now that was easier than I expected. No wonder there are no wrestlers on earth; they can barely keep their weight on their hips."**

Venom sunk back into Eddie's body, finally letting him have control again. Eddie looks at his hands and rubs them in shock. "What just happened? What the hell did I just do?" He stares at the officers in horror. "I'm going to go to jail."

"**If you go to jail, we will go with you. Now stop being a baby and go look for my precious."**

Eddie wiped the sweat away from his forehead and looked into the cell. "Whatever you say, Gollum."

With shaking hands, Eddie nervously walked into the cell that Venom instructed him to walk in. He looked around the cell for any clues and was hoping that Venom could point out the symbiote for him because he seemed to have a sixth sense to know where his offspring was. "Venom, help me out here. Where is the symbiote?"

"**How odd, I do not sense him in here. He must've bonded to someone and left."**

"Is that a good thing or bad thing?"

"**Well, I guess it depends on what kind of host my son bonded to."**

_We are in a prison,_ Eddie thought to himself. _Not a prison, but an insane asylum for the criminally insane. _Then when he noticed the writing on the wall, he froze in terror and his arms went limp and dropped to the side. "It depends on who the symbiote bonded to? Well, I guess then we are in a whole lot of trouble." Venom questioned him and Eddie wasted no time explaining. "Because we are in Cletus Kasady's cell and it looks like he bonded to the symbiote."

"**What?"** Venom whispered in a shocked voice. He then went digging through Eddie's brain to see if he could get an answer on who the hell Cletus Kasady was. When he found his answer, he was slowly filling up with anger like a water bottle being filled with fountain water.** "NO! THAT PSYCHOPATHIC SERIAL KILLER STOLE OUR SON?!"**

"I'm afraid it seems that way."

"**We have to find them, but I can't track him!"**

"Looks like you're gonna have to find him on your own because, after that fight in the hallway, I don't think I can handle this."

Venom was abruptly even more enraged over the betrayal and shot web from Eddie's back and hooked them to the wall and melted him in ooze. **"You will not abandon me, you will help me find my son! **_**My**_** son. DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?!"**

Eddie could feel the bones caving-in on himself, this was the first time he felt like he really wished that he jumped off the bridge instead of just being saved by an alien. Venom seemed to sense this and he started strangling Eddie. His lung system was cut off from his mouth and he was taken away of oxygen. "Wait," he wheezed out painfully. "I didn't mean to offend you, I'm sorry."

"**Let's not forget that little piece inside your brain that I can use against you."**

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"**When we first met, I found this tiny little piece of information inside your brain that you block out from everybody else. Don't try and deny because I already filed it and I am going to use it unless you do what I say."**

"What piece of information?"

"**Don't you remember?"** Venom hissed almost sadistically.** "Don't you remember, that little tragedy you had with your wife? You can hide it from everybody else, hell, even your ex-wife, but you can no longer hide it from me. Let's face facts because this little tragedy plays a role in your reasoning that drove you to attempt suicide. If you do not help me find my son, my own flesh and blood, then I'm going to drive you crazy until I find you no longer desirable to bond to."**

"Then what will you do after that?"

"**After that, I'm going to feed on your corpse and eat up your brain."** The tone in his voice gave him a demonic vibe and Eddie was once again fearful for his life because of the literal inner demon within him.

"Wait, wait, wait," Eddie begged for mercy, not wanting to be crushed to death by his own body. "I'm sorry for what I said, but I am genuinely terrified of what you are going to do to me. I'm sorry, and if you let me go, I will help you find your son. I will fulfill my end of the deal and get your son a new host, especially now since he's bonded to a serial killer."

"**You better not be saying that just because you are being crushed to death."**

"You're in my head, so you should find your authentic answer in there."

"**I don't want to dig around in that dark and empty place of a head you have; I want to hear it from you directly. If we are going to be working together, then we are going to have to build trust. Fair warning, trust is something I have not earned since I told my family I want to build mutual relationships with hosts."**

"This is a promise. I don't want your son to die and I don't want that mass murderer to die as well." Eddie sighed deeply and loudly as he was released from the wall and fell to his sides. His heart was beating fast due to his lack of oxygen that was slowly building up within him. He gets up on his arms and knees and gasps for air. "You tried to choke me to death."

"**As much as I hate to sound like my parents, but physically threatening someone is the best way to get them on your side. Works a lot better than reverse psychology."** Venom laughed after his sentence.** "Just like how verisimilitude trumps precaution."**

"You copied that from that show, _Gotham._"

"**Dug through your memories, and it looks like a cool show."** Venom forced Eddie to stand up on his feet as more SWAT officers came into the room. Eddie kept his back turned to them as the ooze started taking over once again, but this time, Eddie embraced it with a smile.

Eddie became Venom once again and roared in passion. He turned towards the terrified SWAT officer reinforcements. They aimed their guns and threatened to shoot, but most of the officers know that shooting at an inhuman monster that is unknown to them will not work. They've learned this from watching enough sci-fi movies.

"**Hello, officers. We will just be leaving, so from a man in black to men in black, put down your guns and maybe, just maybe, I'll label you as 'Do Not Eat.'"** The officers were very reluctant in their response. They had no idea what to do, whether it be let Venom go and not end up injured like their comrades, or just let him walk away as he pleased. **"How about this, walk away or Venom will inject his venom in you?"**

The officers finally came to a decision and the lead SWAT lowered his gun and lowered a nearby officer's gun like in the movies, which lead to the other officers lowering their guns. Venom stiffened his stance and chuckled. **"Thank you all for your cooperation, now make way for Venom."**

The officers did what they were told and let Venom pass them, their eyes staring at them with intensity. Venom starts walking down, the hall before he picks up speed and starts running. He ran with such intensity and when he got outside, he just jumped onto one of the vans and launched himself in the air.

He made a fish and a web shot out of his wrist and went sticking to a building for him to swing on. Venom was using Eddie's memory of that one spider guy in New York as an inspiration for his web-swinging powers. He already had the spider symbol on, but he reminded himself that he was no copycat, he was no spider-boy, he was Venom swinging across San Francisco.

Eddie was more in cruise control as Venom was doing all the swinging. He was unaware of what destination Venom had in mind, but he didn't bother asking because Venom said if they were going to work together, then they must trust each other. So this was Eddie's first test of trust towards the symbiote.

Venom shot two webs out between two buildings and launched himself as high as he can into the air. He flew into the air for several seconds, leaving Eddie terrified due to his intense fear of heights. The whole experience felt like a roller coaster, but he felt safe because the symbiote had him wrapped tightly around him. But when Venom nosedived towards the ground, he couldn't contain his terror and screamed at the top of his lungs. Venom barely managed to shoot a web out and swing across several buildings. Now the roller coaster ride was getting slightly more bumpy for Eddie because he felt like he was going to slip from the symbiote and fall to his death.

"Venom! Slow down before I fall!"

"**Don't worry, Eddie. **_**Trust**_** me."** Venom kept his promise and resorbed Eddie back into his ooze.

Venom slowed down on swinging so he could swing towards this one tall building. Once he connected to the building on his hands and feet, he ran up the wall, sprinting with high intensity. When he was no more than twenty-five feet from the antenna at the very top, he lunged upwards with a burst of energy in his legs. Venom flew upwards and attached himself to the very top of the antenna, holding on with only one hand.

Eddie felt some of the ooze fade away from his face and Venom's face form on a tendril extending from his shoulder. He looked at Venom with panting breaths of fear. "What the hell was that?" Then he examined his environment and saw that the ground was about the same height as when he was standing on the top of the Golden Gate Bridge. "Why so high up in the air?"

"**Oh, so you're all of a sudden afraid of heights?"** Venom mocked with a hint of annoyance in his own voice rather than jokiness. **"Eddie became a wussy again. If you are so afraid of heights, then why did you plan on jumping to your death?"**

"I wanted to die, conquering my fears," Eddie answered. "Maybe I was too depressed to care about how high I was, even though I wanted to be high enough so I can die, but that isn't the point. Why are we so high up in the air and the ground so far away?" He looked down again and felt sick, snapping his head up to look at Venom. "Just...why?"

"**I am trying to gain my son's scent,"** Venom told firmly. **"I can't track him because his scent has changed due to bonding to a host. I'm even trying to dig through your memories for Kasady's scent to see if I can cross-reference it, but nothing. I just can't seem to find him. You haven't been around Kasady long enough."**

"You can dig through my memories for a person's scent?"

"**You wouldn't believe how many rotten scents are in your brain. How can you call **_**that**_** smell cologne? But Anne's perfume smells alright."**

Eddie groaned in distress upon hearing the name of his ex-wife. "Today is some birthday for me," he comments to himself. "I turn twenty-six, I attempt to commit suicide, I am bonded to an alien looking for his son, and I am painfully reminded of Anne."

"**Focus,"** Venom barked. **"As long as you have me, you will have somebody to live for. Forget about Anne and focus on Kasady."**

Something about that comment seemed to awaken something dormant within Eddie's brain. He looked down as he dug through his memories for an explanation. Kasady and Anne barely fit in the same sentence together. Eddie's eyes then widened as a certain memory hit him like a bullet.

_Now, I'm really going to kill you. I promise you, on my life, when I get out of here, and I will get out of here, then….I'm going to unleash carnage upon you and every single person you love._

Eddie shook himself back into the presents and looked at Venom with fear in his eyes. "We gotta save Anne."


	4. Vierte

Venom swung off to a fancy restaurant called Tadich Grill. Venom formed back into Eddie as they landed on the ground in an alley. Eddie ran as fast as he could across the street, narrowly avoiding hitting a car, and ran inside the restaurant. Regretfully, he had to bump into people to get to the front of the line just to get to the waiter at the front. His ex-wife's life was at stake and he refused to let her die just because of his depression or her affair with somebody else. Once Eddie was at the front counter, he panted in starvation, his stomach growling.

The lead waiter taking names was an elderly man with gray hair and black sunglasses. (**For Stan Lee, a cameo for him. RIP Stan Lee**) "Hey there, are you on the list?"

"Is Anne Weying here?"

The old man squinted his eyes in recognition. "Hey, you're that Eddie Brock guy from the show! Can I get a picture with you?"

Eddie wasted no time, urged him to get out his camera, and he took a quick picture with the old man, barely smiling, and urged him to tell him where his ex-wife was.

"She's in the back, in one of the booths," the old man pointed.

Eddie hugged him tightly and cheered for him. "Thank you, you the man! You are the man!"

"I'm the man," the old man cheered as he pointed his two thumbs at himself.

Eddie races to the back, looking for his wife. "Remember, this is a 'me' thing, not a 'we' thing," he reminded Venom in a quiet tone. "Let me settle this with Anne."

"**Told you I could track her scent. She smells nice in desert flowers perfume."**

"That's creepy," Eddie scolded. "You're an alien from another planet, making weird remarks about something that isn't even of the same species."

"**Owie, I am so hurt."**

Eddie stood through one of the aisles of tables, scanning his environment to see if he could find his wife. He looks around once, then again twice, and then when he looked the third time, he saw a lady with blonde hair sitting in one of the corners of the restaurant, eating the seafood there with some guy in a white jacket.

"**That's her," **Venom confirmed. **"She has the same scent."**

"Thank you." Eddie speed walks over to her. Once he was at her table, she turned around and stared in shock upon seeing her ex-husband. "Hi, Anne. You look good." Eddie could tell that he was the last person she was expecting to see her. She did not know about his suicide attempt and he dared not to pour that kind of emotional harm onto her so he was going to say nothing about it.

Anne was struggling to find the words. She had no idea what to say to her former husband in front of her new and current boyfriend. "Thank you." She examines his clothing and finds sweat on him, most likely from fatigue. "You look like you've been working out, running at least."

"I have been," he panted as emphasis. "But I am not here to see you, Anne. I mean, I'm here for you, but not to catch up or anything." He suddenly became thirsty and he lunged for a cup of ice water on the table and poured it over his face, drenching his face in cold water. He sighed after gulping down a large amount and smiled in satisfaction. "That was the best cup of water I've ever had in my entire life." Now he was becoming ravenous because Venom was just itching to come out, projecting his hungry belly onto Eddie's.

"Don't do this to me now," he whispered to his parasite. He turned back to Anne and tried talking to her, but his words only came out in gibberish. "I am so hungry right now, and today is my birthday." He looks around the room like he's lost, stepping forward several feet to go into the kitchen, sneaking in when no one was looking except Anne and her boyfriend, Dan.

Eddie roamed into the kitchen, went into one of the fridges, his powerful senses leading him there, and he took out the only chocolate cake in there and devoured it with Venom's mouth. He never felt more satisfied in his life than eating the chocolate cake in his hands. He was done with the cake in less than two minutes and he heard Venom in his brain, moaning in pleasure from the taste of the cake.

"Best birthday cake I've ever gotten." He throws the tray away and wipes his mouth. Making sure that he no longer had Venom's mouth, he walked out of the kitchen and back to Anne's table. He took a knee and started speaking rapidly to her.

"Listen, I have to get you out of here." He was stuttering all of a sudden, craving something that was alive for some reason. He rubbed his temples trying to figure out why he had a sudden craving for brains. Then he snapped his head up, eyes wide, and realized that Venom was a symbiote that needed the one chemical element in both brains to survive. It started with a p and he couldn't pronounce it, but the same chemical is present within chocolate, which is why he was temporarily satisfied after eating the cake. "Is it suddenly hot in here? Or is it just me?" He began tugging on the front of his sweater.

He snapped his head over to Dan, the boyfriend that stole his love from her. He growled softly at him, moving over to the dark haired man, tempting to grab his face and bite his head off. He so much wanted to just bite into Dan's brain for stealing his wife from him. Even Venom was rooting for Eddie to make a move until Eddie mentally told Venom that Dan was just as much a human equivalent of raw meat, something no human could eat without getting sick. He said it mainly to convince Venom that eating Dan is just an easy outing for him and not true justice for what really happened.

"I forgot it's your birthday, Eddie," Anne said, catching Eddie's attention. "What is it you needed to see me with? I'm on a date with Dan. How'd you even find me in the first place?"

"I followed the scent of your perfume," Eddie said abruptly, having no control over his words. "Listen, you are in terrible danger and I am doing everything in my power to save you. We have to get you somewhere safe."

"Eddie," Anne said quietly. "What's going on with you? You're making me worried about you."

"I'm worried about _you!_" Eddie said, terrified that his wife might not believe him for what he has to say next.

"You remember Cletus Kasady, right?" He did not give her any time to remember or answer because he was on an extremely tight schedule. "He broke out of prison tonight and I have reason to believe he is after us. He said that he was going to cause carnage to everybody that I love and I guess I still love you so I need you to get as far away as possible."

"Eddie," Anne began. "You are not making any sense. Why are you sweating and why are you so ravenous?" She turned to her boyfriend of a doctor. "Can you figure out what's wrong with him?"

"I'll see what I can do," Dan said as he got up to put a hand on Eddie's forehead. Eddie backed away like the touch of fire. "What's wrong?"

"Your skin feels like fire. We can't stand fire or loud noises so don't touch us."

"You're cold," Dan said with concern. "Your body temperature is impossible under fifty degrees Celsius."

"I don't feel bad. I feel healthy and hungry, and thirsty, and worried about Anne's safety so get lost because I am trying to save a life. I'm a desperate to save my ex-wife's life so just let me be, buddy."

Dan turned a concerned look over to Anne as Eddie began biting down into the lobster that was just brought to their table. He spat hard when he tasted a bone in his mouth. He threw the lobster away and turned to the waitress. "Find me something that isn't dead. That lobster you are serving taste like a corpse, so bring me something that is alive."

"**Food,"** Venom urged with impatient. **"We want food right now!"**

"Hang on, buddy," Eddie urged to his friend as he moved around the restaurant to look for something that was alive to eat. "We have a goal in mind and we must stick to that goal. We will get Anne out, and then we will quench our cravings."

"**Our stomachs are in pain, Anne is right there and I am not sensing my offspring yet, so find something to eat or else I will eat your pancreas."**

Eddie staggered towards a couple in another booth and reached for their fish sticks. He bit into like an animal. He liked the taste of the fish, but spat hard against the window and threw the fish sticks across the wall. "There has to be something in here that is alive. Something has to be alive, but where?!" Then he smelt something from outside and it piqued his interest. Instead of walking, he sprinted out the place and into the alley that he came into.

When he gazed down the long alleyway, he saw a woman being mugged by a lone man in a black hat. **"FOOD!" **Venom formed over Eddie and he shot two webs at the criminal before he could stab the girl, reeled him in and bit him down on the head, swallowing it and throwing the corpse to the side, Venom turning back into Eddie just as he suddenly felt full.

* * *

Eddie was transported to the nearest hospital for his cold body condition. He was put in a hospital bed after being stripped naked and wearing nothing but a hospital gown. He was lying on his back on a bed, trying his hardest to get as much rest as possible. Even though he was trying his hardest to sleep, Venom and his own worry were the two main factors that were keeping him awake. Eddie was trying his hardest to go to sleep, but the two factors were persistent.

"What if Kasady tracks Anne down here to his hospital? What if he's in the waiting room right now, chopping her up into tiny little pieces?" Eddie was truly horrified of the place that he was in. He had straps on his wrists so he won't pose a threat to himself. He tried snapping free of the restrains, but they were really tough to break. Like trying to snap a pipe with your bare hands, "I don't want Anne to die."

"**I know how you feel, Eddie,"** Venom comforted. **"From digging through your muck of a mind, I think some of your feelings for her gave passed over to me. Call me creepy, but I think I want to start a romantic relationship with her."**

"You just had to say 'romantic' specifically? Are you trying to imply that you want to have-"

"**NO!"** Venom barked. **"That is gross even for us if we did it with a human being. What the hell is wrong with you for thinking something like that. If we did it with another symbiote being, then I would be all in and as for you, I would subconsciously black you out so I can get her all to myself."**

"Can we talk about other stuff other than that? What if Kasady breaks in? What is gonna happen to Anne?"

"**I may not be able to track his scent, but I have heightened danger senses."**

"What?"

"**I have ESP, which basically means that I can border precognition. I can see dangers before they even happen, so if there was a dangerous situation going on, I think that I would be the first to know and you would be the second to know."**

"Well..._that's_ is good to know. I don't care what the doctor says though, I have to get out of here and be next to Anne. I just have this sixth sense that Kasady will be breaking into this hospital in less than an hour. Better safe than sorry if you ask me."

"**We wouldn't ask you."**

"Okay, so can you break me out of those bonds? Please?

"**I'll see what I can do, but no promises."**

Eddie sighed softly, trying to calm himself down as his companion was starting to form some kind of plan. He knew that if he just transformed into his full form, then he would break the bonds with his size, but he at least wanted to try his new liquid powers. Recently, back on his planet, he had mastered the power to turn his entire form and his host into a liquid form. It would be good for steal and breaking in and out of places. Course, at this point he didn't really think it would be necessary to have this power, but better safe than sorry and now it looked like this ability was going to come in handy.

Venom took over Eddie's body and turned himself into a liquid form and slithered out the bed snake-like. When he formed back into Eddie in his full form, Eddie realized that not only did he slip out of the bonds like butter, but he slipped out of his hospital gown and he was left standing there, naked. His face blushes from embarrassment and he covers himself up with a magazine and flower vase. Venom was laughing hysterically over the human's humiliation, which only added salt to Eddie's wound.

Eddie snapped at Venom, "Stop that; it's not funny."

"**It is kinda funny,"** Venom protested. **"You're naked in a hospital room and the old lady in the bed behind you is staring at you like you're from another planet."** He laughed louder, but only in Eddie's head. The human turned around to see an old woman with an eyepatch over her right eye stare at Eddie in horror.

Eddie hid behind the curtain that separates his bed from the old lady's bed. He took one last half-second of a glance at her frozen in horror face. "That's not funny at all, I'm naked."

"**You were naked when you were born too."** Venom continued to laugh, not stopping for a single second. **"You were naked when you went skinny dipping with Anne at Iguazu Falls. Remember that?"**

"That's because it was our honeymoon, and I need a change set of clothes."

"**Would you like some overalls or would you like a see-through costume with breasts on it?"**

"You wouldn't be laughing if you genitals were exposed."

Venom's laughing abruptly stopped, which gave Eddie some chills. **"Would you like to see what my genitals look like? They are better than what you will ever have and your father wishes he had my sack of dangling ornaments."**

"That's disgusting, Venom; you have a tasteless personality." Eddie reached into the drawer on his side of the bed and tore out his clothes that have been wrapped up and placed in a plastic bag. He put on his sweater, then his jeans. Once he was fully clothed, he walked out of the hospital room and went to go look for Anne. He roams the hallways like a lost boy looking for Anne, trying to see which hospital room she would be in. "Venom, you have her scent, so look for her."

"**I don't want to sound like a creep, but she smells like a delicate flower. Probably because she is wearing desert flowers perfume and where do you keep flowers from dying in a hospital?"**

"Nowhere. The only place that I can think of where doctors store flowers are the waiting room."

"**Ding ding ding ding, we have a winner. Run and collect your flower, make up to her, admit that you are sorry for having doubted her."**

"That is some seriously F-ed up Mad Hatter rhyming bullshit right there, Venom. You're just like the Cheshire Cat!"

"**We can't help it; when we smell your ex-wife's perfume, it drives me to drive you mentally crazy."**

Eddie ran to the end of the hallway, sprinting through a set of twin doors and into the waiting room. He came to a slow stop as he raced to the middle of the room, he scanned to see where he was and to get an idea as to where all the exits were. He turned around and he saw Anne sitting in a green chair, looking at him with great concern.

"Eddie?" she called out to him as she stood up and walked towards him. "What's going on with you?"

Eddie could barely control Venom from taking over his subconscious to stroke Anne's shoulders in a gentle way. Anne was slightly confused but did nothing to push his hand away.

"**Look at her, you had a lot going for you and you dump her because she doesn't remain faithful to you."**

"I gave her a chance," Eddie whispered, but Anne heard.

"**You gave her **_**a**_** chance, you didn't give her a **_**second**_** chance. What kind of person are you if you weren't to give second chances?"**

"I'm an unforgiving person," Eddie said normally instead of whispering, not afraid to say his answer out loud. "I can't believe that I'm an unforgiving person."

"No, Eddie," Anne tried to persuade. "I cheated on you, I didn't deserve forgiveness."

"**Imagine the guilt she must've felt for cheating on you. Imagine that all that guilt would have faded away if you just talked to her and worked it out. Her sadness levels are just as high as yours, if not higher."**

"I'm sorry for the guilt I caused…" Eddie said quietly with a whisper to Anne. He knew what Venom was trying to do. Venom was trying to bait Eddie into saying the words that he wants him to say to Anne. He is trying to indirectly start a conversation with Anne and trying to get Eddie to apologize. Eddie was completely aware of this but played along because he felt like if he didn't know the words to say to Anne, then Venom would help him.

"**If anyone of all people deserves a second chance, it's Anne. How many people will come to you after they reveal that they've had an affair with somebody else? Someone like that means that their word is always trustworthy."**

"Anne, you were always a trustworthy person, and I'm sorry I threw it back in your face."

"**You should apologize because of your actions in leaving her, Anne was driven to commit suicide, only to fail. Just seeing you is driving her into an even bigger depression than you are in. She deserves an apology for everything that you have put her through and if you don't apologize, then I-"**

"Anne," Eddie interrupted Venom to talk to Anne, he didn't need to hear any more from Venom. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry for everything that I have done to you. I'm sorry for leaving you, I'm sorry for costing you your job, I'm sorry for not forgiving you, and I'm sorry that I made you depressed. I am so sorry for everything that I have done and I just wanted you to know that. I don't expect you to forgive me, or if I even deserve forgiveness, I just wanted you to know. I am truly sorry from the bottom of my heart."

A single tear rolled down Eddie's cheek, catching Anne's attention. Just seeing this single tear made Anne remember how much she missed Eddie and how desperately sorry for being unfaithful to her loving husband who has been nothing but faithful to her.

Just as their lips were about to connect, the wall beside them explodes and they are thrown across the floor. Anne went sliding underneath a table while Eddie went sliding across the floor. Just as he slows to a stop, he sits up and a piece of debris and he struck his head again. He groans and rolls over to the side. Eddie grunts in pain as he sits up on his arms and knees, his head looking forward at the hole seven feet wide and height. He thought that there must've of been some kind of explosion because people from the door beside the hole were running like hell to get away from something. The patients and families in the waiting room followed their example and made a run for it, not a single person stopping to help Eddie up.

"**What the hell was that?"** Venom panicked. **"Whatever that was, it didn't set off my senses."**

"That's a good thing, right?" Eddie wheezed and leaned against the wall with one hand. "No senses, no danger."

"**Not necessarily because the only two things that can't set off my senses is no danger and…."** He left Eddie hanging on the last part as a thought crosses his mind, making him thinking and sign in terror. Eddie heard Venom's frightful terror and it sent shivers down Eddie's throat.

"What is the other thing that can't set off your sense, Venom?"

Anne hit her head against one of the legs of the table. Her head was throbbing and bleeding and a concussion was setting in, making her dizzy. "What was that?" She crawled out from under the table and rested her head on one of the leather chairs.

Eddie limped forward as something stepped into view from the hole. A tall figure with red features stepped through the hole and stood to its full six-foot-ten height and stared at Eddie.

Eddie's throat closed up on him as he sees a red symbiote being with organic axes for hands. The eyes on the red symbiote were wider than Venom's, but just as milky white. The smile it gave looked something like that of a Glasgow smile and the teeth were pitch black. Then there was the symbol on the chest, a spider in the center with a twisted web motif that gave off the black and white illusion pattern, only black and red instead of black and white.

"Oh my god," Eddie whispered in terror. "What are you?"

"**Hey there, Eddie!"** The voice was loud and booming, sounding demonic and a robotic-like tone that sounded similar to a voice changer. **"Told you I would be back. You remember your dear old good friend, Cletus Kasady, right?"** The ooze around face pulled away to reveal Kasady smiling like a maniac. His face was covered again and he continued laughing.

"Kasady, you better walk away; I'll kill you myself."

"**Unlike you, I carry out my threats. And my name's not Kasady anymore. It's...CARNAGE! Something I promised to unleash upon you and your family and I think I will start with your ex-wife."**

Anger was spiking up within Eddie's chest, but he controlled it and mentally signaled for Venom to get ready. "You touch her, and we are going to hurt you really badly, _Carnage._"

"**Who's 'we?'"** Carnage asked out of curiosity and possibly out of adrenaline. He has barely been able to use his new symbiotic abilities on anybody as he wanted to save it for Eddie and Anne, and now, he was hoping that he would get to fight two people at once.

"Since you asked," Eddie stopped to wink. "I'll show you who 'we' are." He licked his lips in anxiety and made a fist. "SNAKE!"

"**HISS!"** The symbiote heard his secret call word. He took over Eddie and the two became Venom once more, growling with his tongue sticking out of his mouth at Carnage.

"**Well…"** Carnage tilted his head to the side as new knowledge processed through his mind.** "What do we have here...Daddy?"**

"**Hey there, sonny boy,"** Venom mocked his offspring. **"You run around, making a mess out of the town and not cleaning up after yourself? You need to be taught some manners boy."**

"**You know what, Papa? If you turn Eddie in right now, then maybe I just might forgive you for what you have done to me,"** Carnage offered.** "What do you say?"**

"**I say 'what the hell have I done to you'?"** Venom genuinely had no idea what he has done to his own son to cause him to bond to a serial killer.

"**I am going to hurt you so badly, Dad. I'll be sure that after Kasady kills Eddie and Anne, I will save you all for myself. I will make you suffer and make you wish that you were dead."**

"**We share the same weaknesses."**

"**I have no weakness. Neither Kasady nor I have any weaknesses. Now enough talk. What I'm about to give to you is not goodguy-badguy love, it's father-son quality time."**


	5. Fünfte

Carnage shot out extended tendrils towards Venom and caught him by the neck and chest. He yanked Venom back like he was reeling in a fishing line and hammered Venom hard on the ground. He doesn't stop until he feels satisfied enough and he hurls his father across the hallway and he flies through the same set of doors that Eddie burst through moments ago.

Venom slid across the floor like water and slowed down, only to come to a stop when he hits his head softly against the wall. **"Oww, I thought sons were supposed to get bumps on their foreheads, not the fathers."**

"You can take this guy right?" Eddie made no attempt to hide the fear and pain in his voice. "I mean, he's your son so you should be able to put up a fight against him."

"**I don't know, clearly, the shit he has is something that I haven't even seen before." **Venom slowly gets back up to his feet while rubbing his bruised head. **"I'm detecting that he has abilities that no other symbiote has."**

"**How the hell is that even possible?"** Eddie voiced in outrage.

"**A more likely explanation is due to his incubation on Earth, his SNA evolved in a different way to fit this environment. By the way, SNA is our equivalent to your human DNA."**

"He's gonna kill Anne; we've got to find his weakness."

"**Well, even though he is far more advanced than us, he should have the same weaknesses, which are sonic waves and fire."**

"All we have to do is lead him to the MRI room and crank it up in there."

Venom launches forward and through the double doors to find Carnage walking over to where the dizzy Anne was resting. He roars in fury and lunges for Carnage's back. He tackles the symbiote and they both fall through the wall, landing in the men's room with a loud rumble. Carnage rolls on top of Venom and starts choking him while using his tendrils extending from his body to keep his limbs to the ground.

"**How ironic you are going to die in a place that is supposed to save life,"** the evil symbiote mocked. **"I bet they already have cremations cooking up for you."**

Venom tried lifting his arms but the tendrils kept him pinned tightly. **"I'm going to cremate you like ice."**

"**You better turn the heat on to the max, because fire doesn't affect me."**

"**We'll see about that, junior."** Venom shots a tendril of webbing from his face and at Carnage's eyes. The symbiote groans in displeasure and relaxes his grip on Venom's neck and limbs. Venom thrust his hips up and flipped Carnage over him and onto his back. He rolls backward and onto his son and punches him as hard as he can. He ripped a sink from the wall, spraying water everywhere and smashes it on to Carnage's face. He raised it for another strike only for the red symbiote to use two tendrils from his shoulders to catch the sink and crush it in his hands.

Carnage forms an ax with his organic form on his arm and slashes Venom across the chest, slicing a thin piece of the symbiote off of Eddie's chest before it crawled back and resorbed into Venom's mass. Carnage kicked Venom off and trapped him to the wall with detached tendrils. Venom was wrapped like a cocoon from the neck down against the wall and was helpless to do anything when Carnage turned both of his hands into hammers. He spread his arms like wings and clamped them against Venom's head.

Without thinking, Venom was able to turn into liquid form and slither out of the entrapment before Carnage could kill him. The two organic hammers ended up hitting each other and Venom slipped away through a tiny hole in the wall the size of a mouse. Carnage snarled and kicked the wall apart after turning his hands back into their normal mode. After tearing the wall apart, he was lead into a hallway with glass windows. He watched as his father squeezed through a window, turned back into physical form, and started climbing up the window.

"**What a coward he is,**" Carnage smirks in amusement. He slammed his way through the window and began crawling up the wall too.

Venom wasn't going for the roof of the hospital, he was going for the room that had the MRI scanner. He looked through each window as he passed, gazing into Room 300, which was a hospital room for newborns. Venom's eyes widened in horror at the thought of Carnage harming newborns and quickly crawled up the window to make it look like he was trying to crawl away in terror to make Carnage more interested. He looked down to make sure that Carnage was too preoccupied with chasing his father to notice the newborns. He sighed in relief when he saw that Carnage was oblivious of the babies.

"**Don't leave, Daddy,"** Carnage calls. **"The fun's only beginning."**

"**A father never leaves his son behind." **Venom looked through the window of room 360 and saw an MRI scanner and more importantly, he saw the back of Anne's boyfriend, Dan. He was escorting people in the MRI room to safety and left the room with them. Venom used this moment to kick through the window and web up the hole in the window to slow Carnage down temporarily.

"**Trying to cover your tracks, Daddy,"** he heard the red symbiote say from the outside. **"Is this a game of hide-and-seek? I've always had a nose for sniffing out hiders and I have your scent, Papa."**

Venom rushed over to the controls of the MRI scanner in the room. He stood over the buttons and saw just a buncha random buttons and lights of different colors. He had no idea what to do and Carnage already punched a hole through the webbing. He tapped his fingers on every single button and dial, hoping that some kind of miracle would happen when Carnage broke through.

Dan walked back into the room and froze upon regarding the symbiote. Venom snapped his head towards him and pulled Dan in by the chest with a web without any hesitation after seeing his doctor's uniform. **"Listen here, pretty boy, there is a mass murdering psychopathic alien about to burst through that window. When I say, you will crank the sonic waves on the MRI as high as you can until I tell you to stop. Got it?"**

"What?" Dan stuttered, visibly terrified.

Venom sensed the terror in Dan and decided to try a different approach. **"That monster is here for Anne and her handsome ex-husband, Eddie. If you are not going to do it for us, do it for Anne."**

Carnage ripped through the webbing and smashed his way into the room. Venom moved away from Dan and shot a long tendril at Carnage and rammed him into the ground. Carnage immediately cut off the tendril and got back up. **"Daddy, I have to say that this is the best father-son time we've ever had together."**

"**After this is done,"** Venom begins to growl. **"I'm going to send you back to your room until you come out a good boy."**

Carnage laughed hysterically at this, unfazed at all by the threat. **"Why didn't you say so in the first place? Hell, I would've sent myself to my room and grounded myself for two weeks."**

"**Then save me the trouble sonny."** Venom studied his prey hard until Carnage acted first.

"**Let's not end the party here."** Carnage shot eight spiky tendrils out of his body and all over the place. Venom was not quick enough to dodge all of them and one of them implanted deep into his ribcage. **"I think my accuracy's getting better."**

Venom gripped the spike around his ribcage and ripped it from his body. Venom watched in curiosity as his wound healed and he pointed the spike at his son. **"I bet It would be so funny to you right now if I was to stab this spike through your one good eye."**

"**That would be very funny.**" Carnage formed one mallet in his left hand, a scythe in his right hand, and swung them both at Venom.

Venom turned to liquid form as a counter and then back into physical form. He charged into Venom and pinned him against the wall beside the window. Carnage jammed his back into the wall, making sure he would stick, brough both of his feet up to Venom's waist and pushed off. Venom barely slid across the floor and he stabbed Carnage in the chest. The spike was only absorbed into Carnage's form and showed no signs of pain. Carnage punches Venom across the face with his fist and knocks him into the MRI device. Venom bounces off and punches Carnage back in the face and shoves him over to the window.

Venom grabbed Carnage by the throat and held him out the window they tore through. Carnage's upper body was hanging over and about to fall until he fought back and blew more spikes all over from his body. Venom was pierced in the stomach and chest with the spikes and yelled in pain. Carnage shoved him back and whacked him across the face with a hammer. Venom couldn't maintain balance and fell over to the side.

"**How disappointing, Dad…."** Carnage mocked with seriousness in his voice. **"You know, I was hoping this little father-son parade would go on a little longer. But I just want you to know that once I kill you, Anne will be my new wife."**

Dan, who had been hiding behind the controls since the whole fight broke out peeked up to see Venom on the ground and wounded. The two symbiotes were close enough to the MRI scanner and he knew he had to do something in order to save the black symbiote.

Dan decided to go for it and turned the dial to the right as possible.

What felt like a thousand knives stabbing into his ears had Venom screaming bloody murder to block the sound out from his ears. Carnage, due to still being a newborn, is in much greater pain and howls. He slammed his back against the wall in agony. Venom leaned over on one knee and felt himself slowly peeling off of Eddie like a bandage. The same effect was happening to Carnage, but Venom detached from Eddie before Carnage detached from Kasady.

Once the parasites were free their hosts, the sonic noises turned off and they each retreated in different directions. Eddie shoved himself up to his feet with his hands as soon as he realized the current circumstances. Kasady was pulling himself up on a metal drawer, still dressed in his prison suit with his back turned.

Eddie rushes as Kasady. He tackles him on a table and spills some papers and cups over but kept Kasady pinned as long as he could.

From the other room, Dan watched in shock and confusion as Eddie Brock, his girlfriend's ex-husband, fought Cletus Kasady in front of him after being freed of the black ooze that slipped away. He could not believe his eyes that that monster was Eddie this entire time and that the red symbiote was Cletus Kasady. He wanted to go alert security, but he knew that they already had their hands full.

Kasady grabbed a clipboard blindly on the table he was pinned to and struck Eddie in the temple with it. Once he feels Eddie's grip soften a bit, he knees Eddie in the groin area and tosses his pain-ridden body to the side. That was when Dan decided to help. He turned around to look for the nearest thing he could use as a weapon. Nothing real solid in the MRI room that he could use as a weapon, so he improvised. He ran for the hand sanitizer on the wall and ripped it and threw it as Kasady.

Kasady blocked the attack with one hand and threw the clipboard at Dan's forehead, hitting him and leaving him with a bleeding bruise on his forehead. "Bullseye." Dan fell flat on his back and Kasady ran up to him and stomped on him repeatedly. "I'm going to throw you out the window."

"Not if I can help it." Eddie ran up to Kasady, lunging for his legs this time and threw him off balance completely and entrapped his legs in his arms. Kasady landed on his stomach and grabbed the garbage can and used it as a weapon on Eddie's face. He punched Eddie in the nose and slipped out of his grasp. He then kicked Eddie back and shoved him towards the MRI scanner. He kicks Dan in the face one more time before he charges at Eddie and puts the upper half of his body inside the scanner. Eddie resisted because deep down, he was a little claustrophobic. He would get on the MRI scanner on his own free will, but if he was forced in, then he would start panicking because a fear of entrapment was his greatest fear.

Dan grabbed a nearby fire extinguisher and used it as a weapon against Kasad's head. He struck him three times in the back of the forehead and the serial killer fell over to the side and unconscious. Dan sighed in relief and dropped the fire extinguisher before turning to Eddie halfway into the machine. He pulled Eddie out of the machine and sat him down against the nearest wall. "I can't believe that was you, Eddie," Dan voiced in amazement. "What was that thing attached to you?"

"You don't want to know," Eddie groaned as he wiped the sweat from his forehead. "You wouldn't understand a single thing if I told you."

"Try me," Dan insisted. "I pretty much saw the whole thing so whatever statement you have is credible."

"Well," Eddie said as he weighed the possibilities. "You did save our lives so this is your payment. That ooze that was sticking to my body was an alien that was using me as a host to survive. The whole experience is ugly, but kinda cool at the same time. That red symbiote sticking to that psycho," he gestured to the unconscious killer. "Is this alien's offspring and he means business when he mentions creating carnage."

"Let's get you out of here," Dan offered. He grabbed Eddie's arm and put it over his shoulder and helped carry Eddie. "I'll get you help."

"Thank you, current boyfriend, of Anne." Eddie has not forgotten that while Dan may have saved his life, in his perspective, Dan was an enemy who swiped his former wife. While he was being carried away, he looked around him for the alien symbiote, finding it nowhere in sight. The unconscious serial killer was still there in his original resting place, his he was starting to tense up for some reason. It was most likely because his danger sensor was going off. He couldn't find Venom, nor Carnage and not finding Carnage is what terrified him the most.

The Carnage symbiote was gone, but it was not gone as one might think. The Carnage symbiote bonded through Kasady through a wound in his arm and because the symbiote exists in his bloodstream, Kasady could regenerate a new symbiote over him with the same personality as the previous. Kasady's eyes shoot open and he smiles with a growl as he feels the Carnage symbiote reapply to his skin. As the Carnage symbiote covered the last bit of Kasady, the two stood up and healed all the injuries that Kasady sustained during the fight. He sighs deeply as he breathed for the first time.

Now Carnage once again, he turned around and saw Dan about to carry Eddie out the room. Not wanting to let his target get away, he shoots a tendril-like a gun from his wrist and it hits Dan in the back and slices through his skin. The doctor howls in pain and falls down to his knees clutching his brutal wound.

Eddie jumped back in surprise and turned around to see a long arm reach out and grab Eddie by the throat and bring him forward. Carnage squeezed Eddie's throat in his hand, turning his face red and cutting off his oxygen, bringing a smile to the psychopath's face. Carnage turned his head in interest and began laughing hysterically.

"**Oh, how joyful it would be to slice you open and watch your guts fall out right here."** Carnage licked Eddie's face like a popsicle. **"I bet you taste crunchy on the outside and gooey on the inside. How delicious you look."**

Deep down, Eddie did not want to die because he had so much he still wanted to do. At the very least though, he did not want to die on his birthday and was determined to make it until midnight. He decided to stall for time until the Venom symbiote found its way back to him wherever he was hiding.

"Wait, stop!" Eddie shouted with what little breath he had but his speech was cut off before he could finish pronouncing the last two letters of 'stop.' "Let's talk about this; I got you on death sentence after all."

"**You're begging for mercy?"** Carnage inquired. **"Too late because you should've offered me mercy when I begged for mercy."**

"When did you beg for mercy?" Eddie choked while spitting spit out unintentionally. "Not once have I heard you ask for mercy."

"**That's because I'm not talking to you, Eddie. I'm talking to my Daddy, wherever he is hiding."** Carnage holds Eddie up higher above the ground and shouts across the room for his father. "FATHER, come out of your hiding place and face me like a man. Face me or watch as I crush your precious human host in my hand like an ant! You have no more than five seconds to respond."

"Don't!" Eddie gasped out to the room. "Don't do this, Kasady!"

"**There is no Kasady,"** Carnage sneered in anger at the human. **"There is only Carnage and I am going to eat you unless Dad comes out here in two seconds."**

Eddie tried stalling for more time, but he almost lost hope when he realized that maybe Venom scurried off and let him for dead. Then he felt something wrap around his leg like a vine. He tries looking down, but he didn't have to the second he felt that same vine-like feeling crawl up his waist and ensnare him. He grins in amusement as the recognized bonding returns to him.

He became Venom once more and broke free from Carnage's hand. He slashed Carnage across the throat and wounded him. Carnage healed at a much quicker rate than Venom has ever healed and he retreated. **"I'm going to take you out first, Daddy. Let's take this fight somewhere else though."**

Carnage jumped forward and broke down his physical matter into small parts so he could travel through a small outlet in the wall like it was nothing. Venom tried catching after him, but he was too late and he didn't want to risk chasing after him because Dan was still wounded.

Venom punched the wall with the outlet, leaving a perfect circle shaped hole from his fist, and then moved over towards Dan, morphing back into Eddie once more. Eddie kneels down at Dan's side and yanks the spiky tendril from the wounded doctor. He then used both of his hands to roll Dan onto his back and place them on his wounded belly just above his navel. He whispers to Dan that he was going to be okay and that he shouldn't worry because he is in a hospital and there were doctors coming to get him right away. "Over here," Eddie called out.

Four doctors rushed over to Dan's side and loaded him onto a stretcher.

Anne, having recovered from her dizziness, came running up the stairs to look for Dan and Eddie. Although she was running towards men, she was also running away from men. When she was taking the elevator up to the MRI scanner room, a familiar man with red hair was following her.

Anne charged through the door and spotted Eddie down the hallway at the door of the MRI room. "Eddie," she called out and rushed towards him. Eddie looked over at her and gasped in shock. He moved forward slightly and spread his arms to allow Anne to embrace him like they haven't seen each other in years. Anne was crying into Eddie's shoulders and Eddie stroked her hair to comfort her.

"Eddie, there is somebody after me. There's a man with red hair after me; I think he wants to kill me," she panted. Eddie held her tighter than before and looked down the hallway she was just running in.

"What are you talking about?" Eddie asked as he spotted no visible danger. No _visible_ danger. He let his guard down for a brief second and Carnage burst through the door and raised his palms up towards Eddie. Eddie's eyes widened in fear and he shifted his body around to shield Anne from their line of fire. He picked her off her feet and swung around to the other side, but it was already too late. Carnage shot four spikes into his back and made him jump in pain, but he bit his lip to suppress his scream of agony. He heard Anne gasp for air and he felt a moist texture begin to form on the front of his sweater. He recognized the thickness as blood and he looked down at his beloved to see her bleeding badly at her stomach. The spikes had pierced through him and struck Anne. She kept her eyes open and on him as horror sunk into him and he gently set her down to the ground. "ANNE!" Eddie howled in anger.

Eddie roared in pure rage and Venom morphed over him. Anne watched with narrowed eyes while clutching her wounded stomach in pain. The agony disappeared in her when she saw the reality of what Eddie turned into. She wasn't scared because she knew deep down that was Eddie and he seemed to be roaring out of pain over her injury.

Eddie, now as Venom, took the matter into his own hands and grabbed one of the spare stretchers to his right with one hand and threw it without looking over to the red symbiote. The stretcher flew through the air, over the floor of the hallway, dangling in space for several seconds before it brutally smashed into Carnage. The psychopath howled in pain and distress as he was flung across the room and went crashing into the wall.

Venom looked down at Anne and tilted his head to the side, slightly surprised that Anne was screaming over the fact that her ex-husband was an alien symbiote. He smelt her blood and it snapped him back into reality and reminded him that he had to get Anne to the nearest room for treatment. He picked her up bridal style and smashed his shoulder into the nearest wall to get her into an empty hospital room. He gently set her down on the bed and stroked her cheek lovingly.

"**Anne…**" Venom said softly. "**I'm sorry. Please forgive me…**"

"Eddie," she groaned as she grabbed him the shoulder in an attempt to prevent him from leaving.

He grabbed her hand with as little force as possible and very delicately removed it from her shoulder and put it on her stomach. He stood straight up and slowly walked back and outside into the hallway. Anger was boiling up within Venom again and he snapped his head viciously over to see the still conscious Carnage getting back on his feet. **"YOU!"**

"**That was your birthday present, Daddy!"** Carnage exclaimed with joy. **"Today is your twenty-sixth birthday, so I got you a wounded ex-wife."** He shoots a web out towards the psycho, yanks him like a can over towards him and grabs him by the throat as he flies through the air towards him. Instead of eating his head off, he hammers the officer into the wall and hurls him over his head.

Doctors from the other room who were helping Dan out sent half out to save Anne's life. They saw Venom but didn't acknowledge him. They immediately got busy on removing the spikes from Anne's stomach.

Carnage landed on his feet and swung organic axes at Venom. The father symbiote grabbed the axes and used them to pull Carnage forward and throw him by the throat up into the ceiling. The ceiling cracked when Carnage hit it but he shrugged off the pain and clung on. He lunges for Venom and tackles him and the force that Carnage used to attack Venom transferred to Venom and with the combined momentum, they both went falling through the ceiling.

Carnage strangled Venom as they fell through several series of floors with Venom taking most of the damage. Venom quickly reacted on instinct from all the pain and shot web from his back up the hole and onto the ceiling on the floor that originally fell through. Venom slowed to a stop as if he was on a bungee cord while Carnage continued to fall through the floors, crashing through each one before he finally hit rock bottom.

Carnage hammered into the ground like a sack of bricks on his back, leaving a big crack in the ground. His body goes limp and his head goes weightless. He lies there on the ground of the waiting room on the first floor, civilians running out while he laid there seemingly unconscious.

"**Did we kill him?"** Venom asked Eddie. **"He looks dead to us and we aren't picking up any kind of scent."**

"I don't think we should chance it," Eddie answered to Venom.

Before either of them could react next, Carnage subconsciously formed into his liquid form and slithered away like a snake towards the nearest outlet and escaped once again. Venom contemplated dropping down to go chase after him, but Eddie told him that checking on Anne to make sure that she will still alive was far more important.

_Please live, Anne. Please._


	6. Sechste

Venom morphed back into Eddie and ascended up the hole and jumped onto the floor. He looked around to find the room that Anne was in. Once his eyes spot the hospital room with Anne in, he races towards the room and watches in mental agony as he watches the doctors slowly pull the spikes out Anne, screaming in agony at the top of her lungs, piercing Eddie's ears. More doctors rushed in the hallways, half splitting up to go to Dan's room with the other half going towards Anne's room.

Eddie desperately wanted to be next to his ex-wife because the guilt was gutting him from the inside out. A short female doctor with brown hair was ushering Eddie because he wasn't allowed to be in the room during an operation. Eddie made no protests not complied willingly at first. He resisted a little, even Venom telling him to shove the doctor away, but he lost the will to stay in the room and he walked out of the room and closed the door himself. He rubs a hand through his sweaty hair out of guilt and presses his back to the wall beside the door and he could still hear Anne's scream of agony and it was ripping his heart out of his chest.

He spent the last minutes leaning against the wall, face staring off into space as guilt prevented him from even thinking rationally, only of the memories that he had with Anne. The good memories that he shared with Anne that have been ingrained into his brain forever. There was one memory he had where Anne and himself went to the waterpark after she won a big trial. He forgot the name of the waterpark, but he didn't forget how much fun he had with her. A second memory he had was when he and Anne got married. He remembered the day so well, every feeling: walking through the door, holding the cake knife to cut the knife, the kiss he bestowed on her soft lips. He was subconsciously replaying all those memories in his brain like a film. There was a third memory replaying in him that was nothing like a happy memory, almost like a blocked out traumatic experience from a PTSD-like event that somehow found its way back.

It was the memory he had of holding his firstborn in his hand. Yes, Eddie Brock had a son who didn't make it to his first birthday. About a couple of months after his marriage with Anne, about seven months later approximately, he drove his pregnant wife to the hospital where she gave birth to a baby boy whom they named Dylan Brock, born in December 2015.

Eddie wanted to cry over that memory, but he was frozen solid that he couldn't shed a tear.

Eddie and Anne found the whole concept of parenting to be difficult and they struggled a few times. They were currently living in New York because that's where Eddie's job at the Daily Globe was.

Nine weeks after Dylan was born, Eddie and Anne were sitting at an In-and-Out Burger with their baby in the carrier in the booth. They were sitting, talking, mostly small talk because they had no idea what to talk about. Eddie noticed too late a black van pull up to the burger joint and two people walk inside the place with black ski masks on. Eddie noticed one with a double-barrel shotgun and the other with a knife. The most terrifying thing of all was the shotgun guy was staring intently at Anne and infant Dylan. A bystander shouted across the room that people were armed with lethal weapons. A panic broke out and this caused a dicey situation to happen. The shotgun guy slowly raised his weapon in Anne's direction. Eddie's adrenaline kicks from horror as he jumped from his seat and charged at the two after shouting for Anne to get down with Dylan.

Eddie slammed into the shotgun guy and they collided with the man with the knife. When hammered by Eddie, the shotgun guy fired on reflex and the bullets in the shell went flying off in random distances. The three of them fall down to the ground but shotgun guy shoved Eddie off of him and Eddie went crashing through the glass door, cutting him.

A businessman went for the masked man with the knife and pinned him against a window. The masked man jammed the knife into the businessman's stomach and shoved him off. The shotgun guy popped a cap at another businessman. His target fell over with blood splashed on the window. The shotgun guy reloaded his double-barreled shotgun and aims at his next target: Anne.

He heard another gunshot in the restaurant and then came the stereotypical sound of a knife slashing against a person. Eddie groaned and looked forward to seeing the two shooters run out the door and jump over him as they retreated. Eddie grabbed the shotgun guy's leg and tripped him. The shotgun guy tried grabbing his knife-wielding friend for balance but he only ended up pulling him down with him.

Eddie grabbed a shard of glass from the ground and stabbed the shotgun guy deep in the back. The shotgun groans in pain and his body go limp. The knife guy jumps back to his feet and swings at Eddie as he stands. Eddie jerks his head back and drives the knife into his stomach. The knife guy folds over and Eddie shoves him to the ground. The knife flies out of his hand and bounces off the sidewalk and slides into a sewage drain pipe.

Knife guy grabs the shard of glass out but Eddie already kicked the knife guy in the face and knocking him out cold. Eddie pants his breath out, holds himself up by the hands on his knees and looks back into the restaurant to see people looking around in shock.

He heard police sirens on the way and he left the two unconscious on the sidewalk and went back into to check on the wounded.

His heart dropped to his stomach when his eyes found their way back to the booth with Anne and his son. Anne was lying on the floor, bleeding blood from her shoulder while there was nothing but silence coming from Dylan's carrier. Eddie dared himself not to walk over and gaze down into the carrier because Anne was crying not from the agonizing pain, but from emotional distress. He could already feel the emotional distress rising up within him and he was unable to stop himself from subconsciously walking forward over to the booth and looking down into the carrier….

The carrier filled with nothing but a fresh coat of blood, which was enough to make Eddie shut down.

* * *

Eddie was pulled back into the present. A couple of months after the shootout, it was revealed that suspected assassins, Stanley Carter and Mac Gargan were the ones responsible for the attack and they were on an assignment to murder lawyers, believing them to deserve to die. Anne was the only lawyer there to have survived and the assassination. Stanley Carter was the man who attempted to murder Anne but only succeeded in second-degree murdering his son.

Eddie inhaled deeply in order to calm down. He looked towards the door and imagined Anne walked out the other door. He was less than surprised when she didn't. He smashes his fists into the wall and snaps at Venom.

"That's the memory you were going to use against me? How dare you!" Eddie sneered. "You have no idea what it's like to _lose_ your son! I owe nothing to you. Go ahead and keep on replaying that bad old memory in my brain."

He was expecting Venom to say some kind of witty comeback, but there was nothing coming from the alien. He mocked him several more times to try and get Venom to say something, only for him to give Eddie the silent treatment. "What's the matter you fucking alien? Seeing the death of my son, _my_ son, traumatize you? Well, get used to it. If you are going to be giving me the silent treatment, then I won't be asking for your help. I'll find Carnage all by myself, take him off with no assistance."

He moves over to the door and tries opening it. The doctors locked the door, forcing Eddie to wait even more. The police were already running up the stairs and on the floor. An entire SWAT team moved in to secure the floor and checked the hole in the ground. Eddie remembered back at the insane asylum when Eddie put those SWAT officers numbering in several dozen in their place. He also remembered that he transformed in front of all those SWAT officers. In order to make things appear less suspicious, he turned around. Then again, he thought how shady that looked when you turn your back when there are SWAT officers swarming the same room as you. Hoping that the SWAT officers at the prison haven't snitched yet, he turns back towards the officers and raises his arms slightly to show that he has no weapons on him.

Once the SWAT team finished clear out the place for Carnage, they moved out and the doctors came out of the room. Eddie snuck into the room the second the last doctor came out of the room. He locked the door behind him and turned towards Anne, sleeping there, not a care in the world. They seemed to have got her gassed up on anesthesia. Eddie moved towards her, looking down at her stomach, seeing the spikes pulled out and placed on a side tray and her wounds stitched up and no longer bleeding. Gently, he placed the back of his hand on Anne's cheek and stroked. His eyes then traveled down to her stomach.

He wasn't looking at her wound, but at her stomach itself. He was thinking back then how young he was to marry Anne. He was only twenty-one when he proposed to her, barely turned twenty-two when they got married and had Dylan. He puts her hand on her stomach and gently rubs it like she used to rub her tummy when she was pregnant. He thought about all the memories that he could've shared with Dylan, only for some sin-eating assassin to murder him trying to murder his wife. He leans over and kisses Anne tenderly on the belly.

"I'm sorry about Dylan. I am so sorry about Dylan." He was hoping that Anne heard what he was saying because he saw with clear visibility that her stomach was slowly moving up and down which showed that she was breathing. "I do hope that you wake up because I can't bear losing you. We already lost Dylan and if it were up to me, then I would take your place on that hospital bed instead."

He looked out the only window in the room, walking over and looking down. His eyes gazed up and stared out to the city in the darkness. He put his forehead on the pane and then begins a conversation with Venom.

"Parasite, why won't you talk to me?"

"**Don't call me a parasite,"** Venom growled. **"Don't take out your anger on me."**

"You were going to use Dylan against me. You stupid, ungratefully, parasitic alien."

He heard Venom sigh and then say his next sentence.** "Okay, maybe I deserved that. Maybe I deserve to be called that, but I'm sorry. I'm sorry for trying to manipulate you."**

"Venom, you are the literal definition of a parasite. You caused everything by coming to earth and I recommend you do something about it."

"**What would you like me to do?"**

"You and I are going to go find Carnage and kill him. I don't care if he's your son, we are going to kill him before he kills anyone else. You have to understand, that if we let your son live, or if we spare your son and kill Kasady, the second your son bonds to someone else, all of Kasady's chaotic traits will be passed on to him. That's why we must kill both Kasady and your son."

The symbiote felt himself starting to growl at Eddie, but he saw past his point and knew that in order for Eddie's world to not be slain, then they were going to go after both Carnage and Kasady and put an end to both of them. He formed over Eddie and became Venom once again.

Venom looked over his shoulder to see Anne still asleep. He shot a tendril towards the door to unlock for the doctors to come, retracted the tendril and opened up the window. He perched down on the edge and closed it behind him. He jumped forward and flew away from the building, falling towards the ground with a nosedive.

Unknown to Venom or Eddie, Anne did actually regain consciousness and she gazed upon Venom as he sprung out of the building. "Go get 'em, Eddie."

Venom shoots a web out a crane and swings over it and flips into the air, landing on top of a water tower and perching down. "Where the hell are we going, Venom? Do you have a place in mind?"

"**I don't have a place in mind, but I can sense that Carnage is purposely sending out is the scent. He wants us to find him. I guess he has a bit more of a risky side to him."**

"Where's his scent coming from?"

"**It's pretty radical, but I think a library. From what I'm getting, it's a library with multiple stories."**

"Of all the places out there, it just had to be a library? What the hell is going on through this sick psychopath's mind? Can you telepathically speak to your son?"

"**Eddie, if I could speak to my son through telepathy, then I would've done that already. But since I can't, because he is either blocking my mind out, or I don't possess that ability yet, then all I can settle for is his scent." **He aims a web out towards a building and shoots. **"Shall we?"**

"Let's go. Maybe Marvel will write a comic book for us called _Venom vs. Carnage._"

Venom swings out and across the city. While they were swinging, Eddie began questioning where the webbing actually came from and the symbiote revealed that he makes webbing from its own mass. That's when Eddie deduced that if they use too much webbing, then the symbiote would lose too much of its mass and unbound from him.

"**Strangers in the night!"** Venom sang as he swung across the city. Eddie chuckled a little as Venom sang more of his favorite songs, like a radio in a car.

Venom made to a library with five floors, all lights in the windows lit up and Carnage's scent was inside the building Venom launched himself on the roof and crawled into the nearest air vent on the outside. He was clinging on the ceiling on the attic floor, jumping down and turning into a liquid form to seep through the wooden floor and fall a story down onto the fifth floor, turning back into Eddie behind a bookshelf and walking out.

Eddie grabbed a random book off a shelf and pretended to read it as he walked. He looked down at the pages while Venom was keeping a lookout for Carnage. "Where's his scent?"

"**Somewhere on this floor,"** Venom answered. **"He is somewhere on this floor, hiding, and waiting for us. Why he chose a library out of all places, I have no idea why."**

"**It's because a library is the best place to start a fire,"** came a distorted voice. Eddie turned around and a red fist slammed square into Eddie's face. Eddie flies like a rocket across the room, grunting as he hit a bookshelf and it went down, knocking down other bookshelves like dominos.

"**Daddy,"** Carnage's distorted voice echoed throughout the library as people looked over at the red symbiote. **"You are very pathetically predictable, like a moth to the flame."** He tilts his head as he studies Eddie laying against the bookshelf, injured. **"How about this? We up the odds; I have no weakness over the fire, but you do."**

Eddie rolled off to the side of the bookshelf and used a table to steady himself. People began rising from their tables and slowly walking towards the nearest exits. "How did you get here so fast?"

"**I can travel through technology. Carnage Unleashed."** He extends one of his long arms out like elasticity towards a janitor, grabbing him by the throat, pinning him to the wall, and using a long finger to reach into his pocket to grab out a zippo. He retracts his arm and proceeds to light it up. "**As a father, aren't you supposed to say that I'm not supposed to play with fire."**

"You can scourge yourself for all I care," Eddie insulted without anxiety.

"**If you say so,"** Carnage cheered. He took the zippo and swallowed it whole while it was still lit. Eddie and the citizens stayed as quiet as possible, hearing Carnage growling so softly due to the silence. Carnage crossed his arms over chest, kneeled down to one knee and his growling increased in volume. Smoke was emitting from him like a stove and the room got warmer all of a sudden.

"Clear out!" Eddie shouted. The citizens ran for their lives out the closest exits, but it was too late because Carnage unleashed his plan.

Carnage roars as he jumps back to his feet, arches his back, and shoots a huge fireball from his symbiotic body in all directions of the library. The fire explosion was like a miniature nuke that set the entire fifth floor on fire and knocked several people down while others were burned. Eddie was launched back and landed hard on a table, his pant legs on fire.

Carnage calms down and pants as he looks up, his whole body of red mass set on fire but he is not affected in any way. He cracks his knuckles and watches in amusement as people burn to death, put out fires, and run out the doors in mass hysteria.

The overhead sprinklers came to life and sprinkled water over the fire. It was pretty much useless because the fires were spreading everywhere at a phenomenal rate. The walls were on fire and the hardwood floor was slowly burning away at a very slow rate. Eddie patted the fire out on his jeans and jumped onto his feet. He looked at the very last person to run out the exit and he turned to Carnage with his fists clenched. "You set the whole place on fire, Kasady!" He noticed in the corner of his eyes about a dozen people burned and the roof above them starting to collapse. "How is it possible you have no weakness for fire?"

"**Man, incubation on Earth really is the life here."** Carnage upchucks the zippo and throws it into a pit of fire. **"Now let's get this party started, Dad!"**

"Venom," Eddie called out to warn him. "Be careful of the fires!"

"**Copy that, Echo!"** Venom responded and formed over Eddie. Venom walked forward several feet towards Carnage and snarled at him, his tongue out his mouth. **"Looks like you're gonna have a long time cleaning up your room, sonny boy."**

"**I'm gonna turn you, **_**Daddy**_**, into a s'more and eat you myself."**

Carnage lunged for Venom. The black symbiote eyes lit up when he saw the fiery symbiote comes toward him. **"Oh crap,"** Venom exclaimed. Venom jerked his body to the side to avoid the flaming symbiote attack. Venom realized that as long as Carnage was set on fire, then he could no longer physically touch him unless he wanted to be burned. **"Man, why did your incubation have to be on Earth?"**

Venom went back to looking for some kind of noise weakness against Carnage. He kept his head looking for something metal to strike while making sure not to step in fire or get in Carnage's flaming path.

Carnage punched at Venom, missing and punching a hole in the wall behind Venom. The black symbiote grabbed a cushioned chair on wheels and hit his son in the face with it. Carnage grunted in pain and the chair was shoved into his stomach and used to push him back.

"**Death by a chair,"** Venom began mocking. **"Sounds kinda like something right out of, **_**Final Destination,**_** right?"** His senses barely went off when Carnage shot out several spikes set on fire, one of them steaking deep into Venom's left shoulder, the fire burning him from the inside of his shoulder. Venom shouts in agony and yanks the burning spike out, setting his palm on fire. He smacks his hand on the desk and puts out the fire, but the sizzling pain was still present. **"Damn!"**

Carnage kips up and launches a scythe on fire at Venom. Venom leans horizontally like he was doing the limbo and like in slow-motion, watched as the flaming scythe swung over his head. Venom stands back up and kicks Carnage across the room, burning his feet in the process.

When Carnage went flying mid-air due to the kick, Venom shoot webs at Carnage, stopping him so suddenly and yanking him back. Venom quickly kips up and kicks Carnage across the face with his unharmed foot and Carnage went flying to Venom's right, hitting a wall and flying through. Before Venom even knew it, the ceiling above the wall that Carnage flew through collapsed and blocked the hole off from Venom. Venom launched himself back and started putting the fire out by smacking the fire with his hands. The sizzling pain slowly faded away like an oven cooling down. He regained his posture and tried to find a way through the hole that Carnage fell through.

"**Carnage,"** Venom raged. **"Where are you? Come out here and fight me like a…. big boy!"**

An organic ax on fire cut its way through the floor that Venom was standing on. Venom looked down and watched the ax cut a circle around him and he fell through onto the fourth floor. He landed right onto the flaming fiery Carnage's hands and he squeezed the life out of his father.

Venom groaned in pain at Carnage's superior physical strength combined with the excruciating flaming pain from Carnage's body mass.

"**If there is one thing you got to know about me, Daddy,"** Carnage began as he kissed his father on the lips. **"I'm a hugger, a big hugger."**

"**Yeah, we can feel your burning love for us," **Venom wheezed through his teeth. He turned into liquid form and slithered out of Carnage's grip. Upon rematerializing himself, his spider symbol caught fire and before he could put it out, Carnage punched Venom in the face with a mallet and sent him flying once again across the burning room and out a window.

Venom flung through the air and shot a web out his flaming arm. The web did shootout indeed, but the fire burned it before it even sprung five feet out his wrist. Venom screamed in horror as he continued to fall towards the Earth.

Carnage jumped towards the window in one leap and he watched with eager as Venom plunged into a pool on the roof of the hotel across from the library. Venom splashed into the pool, making a loud splashing sound in the process and a huge wave of water shoot into the air. He laughed hysterically and the flames began wearing off on him. **"Hey Daddy, did you remember to put on sunblock?!"**

Venom climbed out the pool, fire extinguished and rolled onto the cement, badly injured from the fall. He rolls onto his back and sighs deeply before looking at the window that Carnage just threw him out of. He growls and sits up on one knee, looking at his chest to see that some of the black mass was burned off, exposing Eddie's sweater underneath. **"You burned us you son of a bitch!"**

"**Calling me a son of a bitch? I'm the son, you are the bitch that I'm the son of!"** Carnage responded. **"Come on, Daddy. Why don't you come to join the party; you're starting to look a little sunburnt."** He laughed at the irony.

The black organic mass healed up and the pain faded away. Venom steadied himself on one foot and looked up at Carnage with a growl and his tongue sticking out. **"We'll come to join the party and then we will send you straight to hell."**


	7. Siebte

Carnage tilted his head up and stared out in the dark sky as his senses went off. Carnage's smile widened and he slowly looked over his shoulder with a menacing look. He remained as still as possible, eyes focused intently on a door that was being smashed to pieces by fire axes. Once the hinges off the door were smashed off along with holes in the door, three firefighters smash their way through the door with oxygen masks on their faces. Due to the black smoke spreading through the air like a chemical weapon, the firefighters were blinded and could not see Carnage. They just went to save people who had been trapped on this floor.

Venom sprints off the balcony and lunges across the air and onto the wall of the library. Not missing a beat, he races up the wall, running like he is on a treadmill, and was so close to reaching the window that Carnage was sitting at.

After subduing the firefighters, Carnage looked out the window to see his father running up the wall. He decides to play with his father in a sadistic way and stretches both his arms out down to Venom's level, the fists morphing into blunting and bladed weapons.

"**Shit!"** Venom howled as he saw the incoming lethal weapons coming his way. He thrusts his front foot down, stopping his running abrupt and jumps off the building to avoid the attack. Rolling back in the air with his knees tucked up to his chest, he shoots at the wall with Carnage's window in between and catapults himself towards Carnage.

Carnage shot a huge and extremely durable ball of web out of his chest and it webbed up the window and bounced Venom off like a trampoline. Venom fell back towards the earth and barely caught himself against the wall with the tip of his fingers. Venom's chest collided with the wall like a hammer against a nail and Eddie felt the pain transfer into his chest. "Shit, that hurt!"

"**Suck it up you big baby,"** Venom mocked. Just as he plants his feet and arms more firmly against the wall and started climbing, his danger senses went off, freezing him in place.

"What is it?" Eddie inquired, uncomfortable with the awkward silence and when the silence went on, it made him feel even more uncomfortable.

Eddie and Venom looked up to see two different firefighters fly out of two different windows and began falling towards the earth. Venom knew he had to act quickly so he turns around, clings onto the wall with his back, and looks at their estimated fall paths. Both firefighters were falling into the space between the motel with the pool on top and another building matching its height. Venom quickly devises a plan and he aims his fists at the space between the buildings and fires webbing, spinning a perfect funnel-shaped spider web strong enough for the two firefighters to fall in. They bounced off the webbing at first before they caught a grip and they climbed to safety on the motel with the pool.

He sensed another firefighter being thrown at another window, but up into the air this time. High up in the air like when a rocket is launched and expected to fall down and not go to the moon. Venom gripped the wall with both hands, focusing intently on his target as he launches himself up the wall, jumping high into the air, as weightless as a balloon. He soared high above the night sky, the firefighter screaming in terror as he came falling down, but Venom was still soaring in the air. Venom catches the firefighter and wraps his arms and legs around him and he shoots a web out his back and swings across the burning library and across towards the pool.

He lands in the pool with a large splash and soaks the firefighter. He lets go of the firefighter, not accepting any thank yous from him and just helped him climb out of the pool. **"You're welcome, firefighter." **Venom's head involuntarily jerked his forward and gasped for air as he feels a hand wrap tight around his face like a lever and pulls himself back. He is torn from the pool before he could attack the hand grabbing him and yanked over the building and back into the window that Carnage threw him out of.

Just as he felt the melting heat of the fire surround him, an agonizing pain erupts in his stomach. Venom arches his back and yells out. Carnage had stabbed Venom through the stomach with one of his organic blades that were supposed to be his version of a bowie knife. Carnage retracted the knife from Venom's stomach and used his other hand to grip Venom's face. The black symbiote held onto his wound as human blood leaked out, on the verge of practically throwing up the human's intestines.

"**If I ever get a present, Daddy, this is what I'm going to do to it." **Carnage digs his fingers from both hands into Venom's scalp and began ripping Eddie and Venom apart in opposite directions, almost like peeling a banana. **"Surprise, Eddie!'**

Eddie squeezed his eyes shut and yelled in pain. **"Yah...Kasady, stop!" **The forceful separation of a symbiotic being from his body was as excruciatingly as painful as child labor and the fact that this was happening all while he was experiencing agony in his stomach was just adding insult to injury, or in Carnage's mind, the icing on the cake.

Carnage threw Eddie to the side like a ragdoll and held his symbiotic father in his hands, smiling maniacally.

Eddie was bleeding badly and he was slowly being bled out. He watched helplessly as Carnage put the Venom symbiote close to his mouth, opening up his mouth to reveal his razor-sharp, barracuda-like teeth. Eddie was horrified at the sight of seeing Venom in Carnage's hands and mustered up all the remaining strength he had within his leg muscles to stand back up and reach out for Venom with a bloody hand.

Carnage was not expecting Eddie to fight back and he didn't see him in the corner of his eye. He just focused intently on eating his father.

Eddie reached out for Venom, the tip of his fingers barely making contact with Venom's mass. He was hoping to feel Venom wrap around his finger and then bond over him, but Carnage did the most unexpected thing by throwing the black symbiote out the window. Eddie yelled out for Venom and leaned his body out the window to see the Venom symbiote fall towards the ground, hitting the road dead in the center, splattering like a water balloon. Eddie's heart dropped to his stomach upon the sight of the symbiote across the street, his legs giving in and falling to his knees, crying in anguish. "What did you do? You killed Venom!"

"**I know,"** Carnage said with a smug voice as he looked at Eddie's back.** "As much as I would love to eat him, I'm more interested in you myself, Mr. Brock."** He grabbed Eddie by the shoulders, turned him around to face him and shoved Eddie into a part of the wall that wasn't set on fire. He pinned him so he could make his point. **"You are nothing without your little sidekick, are you?"** Carnage licked Eddie's cheek in a ravenous way, causing the human to turn away in disgust and cringe.

"You are insane!" Eddie spat.

Carnage tilted his head to the side in amusement and he smiled without opening his mouth. **"Cletus Kasady is insane, me, I am very sane. Kasady wants to kill you by setting you on fire, leaving you with sixth-degree burns before putting you out, put your head under icy cold water after, pull your head out before you drown, and then freeze you in an ice cube and have you melted. Now that is very insane. Kasady likes killing his victims in the most creative, bizarre ways possible. Me, if I wanted to kill you, Eddie, I would just decapitate you with a scythe. I would make my hand look like the scythe that the Grim Reaper would use, and I would chop off your head. Quickly, painlessly, and sanely. I prefer killing my victims quickly and painlessly."** He makes a scythe out of his right hand and holds the blade to Eddie's throat to see if the human would react in any way.

"Go on, kill me," Eddie goated. "If you are trying to prove how sane you are, then kill me quickly and painlessly."

"**I don't want to kill you,"** Carnage said abruptly in a calm voice contradicting his usual energetic and agitated voice. **"I don't want to kill you, yet."** His scythe hand forms back into a regular hand and he starts choking the human. **"I want you to witness the rebirth of this city."**

"The rebirth, what the hell are you babbling on about, Carnage?"

Carnage then began explaining.** "You see, I intend to make this city a better place."**

"That's what they all say," Eddie mocks.

"**Those who say they want to change the world usually do have good intentions. My methods may be chaotic, but the goal that **_**I**_** have in mind is genuine." **Carnage licked his lips in anticipations as he tells Eddie his next plans. **"I promise not hurt you because I want you to see what my plans are."**

"And how do you plan to make this city 'perfect?'" Eddie just could not wait to hear what Carnage had in mind other than complete and utter chaos.

"**Are you aware of a fire that broke out at Empire State University in September of 2018 last year?"**

"Yes, I was in New York at the time." How could Eddie forget? It was April 2019, September 2018 was only a few months ago, but he did hear about it from the Daily Bugle. He had no idea how all of this tied into it, however.

"**You see, back when the fire broke out at the university, some of the more precious cargos stored there was evacuated out immediately before the fire got out of control. There was one 'chemical' substance there that was no chemical. The scientists studying it at the time knew this substance only as 'Bane' as it had no true scientific name, or they couldn't come up with one."**

"Bane?" Eddie got to thinking of the fictional DC character named Bane who appeared in _Gotham_ and _The Dark Knight Rises._

"**You heard correctly. Would you like to know what Bane is?"** He interrupted Eddie before he could say his answer. **"Bane is actually a symbiotic being that landed here ages ago. He is one of the first symbiotes in history, he is one of seventeen of the original Klyntars. Unlike **_**our**_** god, Bane possesses limited god-like abilities, but he is capable of telepath. He has the ability to put an entire city under his control. Imagine, an entire city full of people fully devoting themselves to Bane."**

"Mass mind control, are you serious?"

"**The Klyntar is on the brink of collapsing, we need strong and suitable hosts for our species. The homeless, unemployed, and the criminals, they will all die and the entire city of San Francisco, they will worship me. They will worship me as a god. A god of destruction."**

"You're going to become a god so you can be a god of destruction? What kind of person would want something like that?"

"**Me. My father, left me to die, didn't even come to look for me, only after I bonded with Cletus Kasady. He never cared about me until I found my match and he is trying to kill me when it is all his fault."**

"No," Eddie rebutted. "You misunderstand."

"**My father doesn't love me, and the whole city is going to pay with their free wills."**

"Carnage, listen to me: Your father does love you and after you were separated, he bonded with me for the sole purpose of looking for you. He tried to find you, but it was too late. Kasady's mind poisoned you, fight through the poison."

"**You've been watching too many movies. This is real life and I'm going to make sure that your wife is alive and well so she can become **_**my**_** queen and **_**my**_** new wife when this is all over."**

Eddie went hysterical, jumping and trying to free himself from the wall after hearing the end of that sentence.

"**No need to get all hysterical, Eddie. She will be my new queen over San Francisco, the city of Carnage. I want you to be there the moment I bond with Bane and I want to make sure that you savor every sight that you see. And when I'm done with you, I'll make sure that your corpse won't go to waste. I will feed on your brain right in front of my father after I reacquire him. What a fun night this has turned out to be, right?"**

"You lay a finger on Anne, I'll kill you myself, Kasady!" Eddie vowed with venom in his voice. "If you even touch a hair on her skin, I will break every single bone in your body and have you beg for mercy."

"**That sounds so fun and exciting, you becoming all threatening and whatnot. Where was that violence when you were driving my father 'venomous'?"**

"I was saving it for when I really needed it. I won't let you turn this city into an army of chaotic freaks."

"**You're nothing without Daddy bonding to your body, intertwining with your muscle movements and groin area. You couldn't even beat me **_**with**_** father. The truth is, Brock, you are nothing. You are a loser and I'll be sure to finish what my father stopped you from doing on that bridge."**

"How did you know about that?"

Carnage smirked and looked at Eddie maniacally.** "I have my ways."**

Carnage ended the conversation by viscously punching Eddie across the face with enough force to knock him unconscious. Eddie goes limp and he falls over to the ground. Carnage kicks his body away from the fires and looks out the window to see the Venom symbiote slowly peeling itself off like a banana peel of the tar on the street. Carnage gazed with wonder and smiled at the weakened symbiote. **"How easy it would be to kill you right now. I could make a scythe out of my hand and Grim Reaper your ass. But I want you to see what kind of play dates I have in mind." **He reaches over and grabs Eddie by the waist and carries him over his shoulder. Carnage perks on the window before looking down at the Venom symbiote. **"See you later, Daddy. Hope you find me, so you better find the perfect host. Ciao!"** Carnage leaps off the window and webs his way across the city, clutching Eddie tight over his shoulder.

Down below, the Venom symbiote reached out to grasp the sidewalk, barely hidden behind a blue car from the firefighters. The Venom symbiote climbed onto the sidewalk and crawled forward. Despite moving forward, the Venom symbiote was watching as Carnage swung off with Eddie, leaving him all alone to defend himself. If Venom was bonded to a human, then his host would be crying for him. He was in anguish over the loss of his son and host, on the verge of crying right now. As best as he can, he swallowed his emotions and knew what he had to do.

He had to find a host. As he took the form of cricket and leaped great distances across the sidewalk, he scanned all the people around him. The closet people in the range were the firefighters, but he didn't want to interfere with their business in putting out the fires, so he quickly moved on. He barely hopped out the way in time when a new patch of firefighters ran in the fiery building to replace the ones that Carnage threw out the window. Once Venom got farther away from the burning library, he took the form of a jumping spider and began jumping as far as he could.

The farther he got away from the library, the more civilians there were. He could pick any single one of these that he crossed, but not a single one of them had the necessary biological components of his requirements. Not a single person was a match for Eddie's physiology. The best thing that he probably could do right now was bond to a nearby host for as little as thirty seconds before their body would die upon rejecting the symbiote. The most he could last is thirty seconds, not enough time to go after Eddie and Kasady.

"**Come on Venom, think,**" he ordered himself. He didn't even know where Carnage was going. He wasn't focused on Eddie and Kasady right now, only finding the perfect temporary host for him. He needed someone desperately, but not a single person fitted Eddie's physiology. He went through Eddie's memories to see if any of them fit Eddie's physiology. So far, the only person that actually fitted Eddie's physiology was Anne. Venom's eyes lit up as he stopped himself from leaping and taking a moment to analyze his own discovery. **"Anne matches Eddie's physiology? I can't believe it; I'm saved."**

He now knew what his goal was. His goal was to get back to the hospital, and bond with Anne as a temporary host to find Eddie and Kasady. Given the distance between the library and the hospital, he was going to be hopping for a long time, hours at most and he was already starting to show signs of fatigue. **"How the hell am I going to get back to the freakin' hospital?"**

Before he could think of anything, a walking pedestrian stepped on him and he became glued to the sole of the man's shoe. Rhythmically, Venom ground in the ground with pain, groaning and growling in anger. He wanted to bite the imperfect host in his hand until an idea just crossed his mind. He had figured out a plan to get back to the hospital faster. **"What do you know about that?"**

Venom crawled out from under the man's soles, up his shoes, into his socks, to the heels of his toes, and he slowly turned himself back into a liquid form before entering the man between his big toe and index toe. **"Don't mind me, I'll just make room for myself down here."**

The man's eye lit up with a milky white color as he froze there on the sidewalk. Without even thinking, he took off sprinting, racing to the end of the sidewalk before running into traffic to get to the other side. At the very last second after crossing another sidewalk, he slowed to a stop and tapped a jogging woman on the shoulder. Venom transferred into her and she started sprinting from jogging mode. At the very last second as well, she tapped somebody else in the shoulder and he ran the path for her.

This was Venom's plan. His plan was to get from Point A to Point B while using a street full of pedestrians as his transport. He remembered where the hospital was and how far away it was, so all he needed was some transport. He was using the sidewalk full of pedestrians as his transport. Every single person that he came into contact with, he would transport his symbiote mass into their body and then make them touch another person and transfer into their body and so forth but he had to do so in less than thirty seconds or he could kill a host.

Like a scene out of a movie, it was like a blade cutting through glass with the body-hopping. Those who were just used as transport woke up in the middle of the sidewalk, unaware of what happened after they consciously blacked out. Bystanders who saw a whole chain of people touching each other one after the other and running caught some of it on film. Minute by minute, Venom was getting closer and closer to the hospital to reunite with Anne.

* * *

At the hospital, Anne was barely getting out of bed, despite what the doctors said to her about staying in bed. After seeing her ex-husband being taken over by that alien symbiote and then fighting to protect her from a mass murderer, she knew that with all the goodness in her heart, she could not just sit down and heal while her husband was actually out there and actually risking his life for hers. She climbed out of bed and left the room albeit limping. Two doctors standing outside her door near the hole that Venom and Carnage created earlier spotted Anne and escorted her back to her room, despite her pleas not to. After they escorted her back into the room, one of the doctors hooked her back up to the machines and told her that she couldn't leave the room without removing the antibiotics from her system.

And still, when the doctor left, Anne persisted on going out there to help Eddie. When she disconnected herself from the wires that were keeping her alive once again, she grabbed the door handle and tried turning it, only to discover it stuck in place. The door was either jammed, or the door was locked. She groaned in annoyance and tried to look for another way out. The only other kind of escape there was was the window. She limped over the window and slid the window open. She remembers like thirty minutes ago her ex-husband just jumped out the window she was leaning out. If only she possessed the ability that her husband possessed, to be able to swing from building to building, have superhuman strength, she actually envied Eddie in general, but she wished for that power right now so she could help her husband.

Just when she was about to walk back to her bed after contemplating all the remote possibilities of even helping, something catches her attention down below on the streets. She leans forward a little to get a better view and she discovered that a man was running across the street, tagging someone on the shoulder after coming to an abrupt stop and the tagged person running off. They were all running off towards the hospital, but not running away from something, running _to_ something.

The very last man at the end of the street ran to the wall of the hospital, slowing down in the process and touching the wall like he was pinning something on the wall. The man backed away and put his hands on his head, seemingly confused about his current whereabouts. He looked up and saw Anne peering out the window before taking off.

Still in his spider form, Venom climbed up the wall like a chipmunk desperate to get to its acorn. Venom panted in his spider form as he felt his legs start to get sore and tired from the excessive physical exercise in his tiny form. Even when he was taking the shape or form of something else, it required him concentrating and using energy within him to maintain that form, so he was using a lot of energy just to get up the wall and climb onto the pane of the sliding window door and beside Anne. He looked up at her beautiful face and he became distracted for a brief second.

"**Focus,"** he berated himself and crawled into the hospital room. Anne was still looking out the window, trying to spot any other running person running towards the hospital. Once she thought the coast was clear, she pulled herself out of the window and slid the window closed. She turned around to look at the door and what she saw on her bed stunned her.

A big gooey puddle of black mass that was reaching out, forming a hand on the end and reaching out to Anne as if calling for help. She recognized the gooey substance as what formed over Eddie when he left the room and when he turned to protect her. Anne tilted her head to the side and reached out towards the symbiote, their fingertips connecting and a 'bond' forming between the two.


	8. Achte

Cross Technological Enterprises was the name of the company that the yellow symbiotic substance codenamed 'Bane' was being stored and placed in an ice bucket by a scientist in a freezing cold lab with frost developing on the window. He had to wear snow gear like he was going to go hiking in the mountains of Alaska during a blizzard in December, early in the morning.

Cross Technological Enterprises, or CTE for short, was the name of a company that dealt with the design of advanced technology. The Marvel Comics character, _Tony Stark_, or _Iron Man_, took inspiration from CTE and made his own company in the Marvel universe and called it _Stark Industries._ In reality, CTE did not specialize in creating electromechanical weapons. Their primary field of science was applied physics. They have been known for giving amputated victims some kind of mechanical arms to work with.

Holding unidentifiable liquids in a jar was definitely not something up their alley. But ESU offered them a ten percent increase in every single one of their employees' salaries. All CTE had to do was hold the substance codenamed 'Bane' until ESU gave them the all clear.

"What is Bane anyway?" the scientist asked himself as he sealed up the ice bucket by punching in a four-digit code. "How is this even remotely connected to the word, 'Bane'? The only way that Bane actually works if you are talking about Bane from _Gotham_ or _The Dark Knight Rises._" Once he locked the ice bucket, he put the strap over his shoulder and carried it out of the lab.

Walking out of the 'see-your-breath' temperature room and sealing it shut with an electronic keycard, he strips off his snow gear and back into a lab coat, sighing deeply as the warm air surrounded him and heated up his face and other parts that were exposed to the coldness. To think that the 'see-your-breath' temperature room would be used for storing unidentifiable liquids instead of mechanical arms was just gut-wrenching.

He stepped out into the hallway, one of his gloved hands over the ice bucket as he carries it with him to the destination that he has in mind. As he is walking forward, the lights in the hallway began to flicker, startling the scientist at first. The lights flickered on and off like a firefly and he was started to feel unnerved. "Nothing, just faulty wiring," he trembled to himself. "Barry will get that fixed in the morning."

The lights started flicking off rapidly. The scientist stopped walking and looked back up towards the lights. Now when the lights started going out, one after another shutting off and leaving him in darkness, that's when his fear level started rising from calmness. Subconsciously, his own hands tremble before him and he pressed his back to the wall, looking down both hallways, his chest rising and lowering like a balloon out of terror. "Barry, if this is your idea of a prank, it's not funny."

"**It's not Barry if you are wondering,"** a voice said from somewhere down the hall. The scientist turned to face the voice, his eyes meeting someone standing at the end of the hallway on the other side. The scientist gazed intently at this figure standing at the end of the hallway because he could not make out any features that were recognizable. The lights just flickered on and off, his face concealed by the shadows and every time the light went off and came back on, this figure got closer every foot by the seconds that passed. **"Look at this poor and lonely scientist, walking around the hallways without a proper lighting job. Something right out of a horror movie and I love horror movies."** The figure stepped forward several more steps and he stepped into a light with a lightbulb that was unaffected by the flickering lights. Carnage. The demonic face of Carnage instantly installed fear into the scientist's eye, bringing a big smile to Carnage's face.

"Who are you?" the scientist demanded, summoning enough courage to actually let this creepy person walk forward and stand no more than twenty feet from this figure. His rapid breathing and the panicking state gave away his terror. "I am going to call the police if you do any kind of harm against me!"

"**Wow,"** the sadistic symbiote said. **"Look at the little piggy standing up to the big bad wolf. Unfortunately for you, fortunate for me, you won't be having any hair on your chinny-chin-chin by the time I'm done." **His eyes dart towards the ice bucket and he deduced exactly what was inside there almost instantly. **"However, I am willing to grant you a quick death or at the very least, mercy, if you give me that ice bucket."**

The scientist looked down at the ice bucket and thought of the substance that was being transported inside. "You want this?" the scientist asked for clarification.

"**What is this; noise pollution?"**

The scientist did not want to die, but if a crazy nightmare horror supervillain of some kind wanted what he was carrying on his shoulder, then he knew that this could be used as some kind of weapon. Carnage might spare his life, but he could possibly kill other people if he somehow weaponized this 'Bane' substance. As a scientist whose primary goal was to help people who asked for it, he made his decision. "There is no way in hell I am giving you this ice bucket."

Carnage leaned back a bit and pretended to look stunned. "**Are you really opposing me? I'm a murderer, do you know what I am capable of doing to people in a murderous way?"**

"I don't care; you can't have this ice bucket." The scientist grasped the bucket like it was his own child and ran off. He looked over his shoulder to see the lights flicker off and when they came back on, Carnage disappeared like a ghost. The scientist ran like hell out of there, the whole feeling of fear within him and the dreadful tone of the environment made him feel like he was in a horror movie.

The scientist took a left at a junction and ran into a locked door at the end of the hallway. He peeked through the window on the door to see another hallway, but there was another door at the end of the hallway that had an exit sign above. He panicked upon looking over his shoulder to see Carnage slowly walking towards him, his right hand forming into a scythe and Carnage taking the form of the Grim Reaper, turning his red color black to match the Grim Reaper's black coat.

The scientist went to the keypad right next to the door's knob and began randomly tapping numbers in before a red light went off on the keypad. "Damn it," he cursed out before seeing the Grim Reaper slowly get closer, the lights flickering on and off once again. "Oh please, God spare me!" His memory comes back to him in the panic and he quickly types in the correct combination. Once he punched in the correct numbers, a green light lit up right after the red light flicked off on the keypad. He tries shoving open the door, but it was still stuck. "Oh please!" He looks back at the keycard and sees the card swipe slot. He digs through his pockets with rapidly shaking hands to look for his double electronic keycard. Once he felt his fingers connect to it, he slipped it out of his pockets before they slid through his fingertips and fell through a grate in the floor. "NO!"

"**That's it,"** Carnage in Grim Reaper form cackle maniacally. **"Run little rat. Run like a little rat to his mother, begging for protection against the spider that is going to suck the life out of you."**

The scientist reached back into his pocket to pull out his spare double electronic keycard. He swipes the keycard and the door gives off a _click_ sound, causing the scientist to jump slightly in relief.

Grim Reaper swings his scythe at the scientist, but he missed his head by half an inch. The scientist slammed the door shut and pressed a red button next to the door. The door locked down and the Grim Reaper put his hand on the door's window, his eyes peering out the window and his face displays a cheeky smile. **"You really think a door can stop Carnage, the god of chaos?! I'm going to punch a hole in this wall and turn my hands into sawblades and use them to dance your intestines out of your stomach. I'll make a shrine with your guts!"**

The scientist wasn't going to waste another second. "See you later."

The scientist turned around and ran for the exit. Just as he was within ten feet of the door, an extended hand punched a huge hole in the door and caused the scientist to gasp in horror and run off in a different direction. He ran up the stairs, Carnage retrieving his hand and chasing after him, but in liquid form and travel through the outlet.

The scientist panted as fatigue began to set in from running. He ran up all flights of stairs till he was at the top floor. There was a fire escape that he could take near one of the elevators. All he had to do was slide down the ladder and he should run off.

He rushes through a door leading to a balcony, a ladder hanging over the edge. He jumps over the edge and climbs down the ladder, only to feel something grab him by the arm and yank him back up, he struggled to pull himself down but the arm grabbing him was extraordinarily powerful in strength. "No, no!" he panicked and was yanked back on the balcony by Carnage and hammered into the ground.

"**Trying to leave the party sooner than later, we haven't even cut up the cake yet."** Carnage grabs the scientist by the throat and gives him a twist around his neck. The scientist's body goes limp and he drops to the floor. The strap to the ice bucket broke off and the ice bucket rolled through a small hole in the balcony and towards the ground. Carnage jumped onto the edge and perched down and shot a tendril to retrieve the falling ice bucket before it hit rock bottom. The ice bucket was suspended only eight feet above the ground and Carnage grinned in amusement over his success. **"There we go."**

"**Son,"** a deep voice spoke behind them.

Carnage turned and a fist punched Carnage in the face The tendril detached itself from Carnage's arm and the ice bucket and tendril fell to the floor.

* * *

After Carnage had taken an unconscious Eddie to CTE, he tied Eddie up with his webbing and threw him in a supply closet. Eddie regained consciousness shortly after, but his hands and feet were bound together by organic substances and his mouth had a sticky web glued to his mouth.

He rolled over onto his stomach and sat up on his knees, crawling on one foot and then on the other. It was pitch black in the supply closet and he could barely see. He tried shouting through the webbing, but it was like trying to hit a pebble with a tennis racket. The sounds of his voice were muffled out like nothing.

He banged his shoulder against the door to try and break through, but he only ended up hurting his shoulder and falling on the seat of his pants.

"**Did that hurt?"**

Eddie's eyes widened and he waited for his eyes to adjust the darkness before he looked around. Instincts told him to look above him on the ceiling. Through the darkness, he saw a silhouette figure on the wall, but he could not make out any details because the figure's natural color seemed to match the pitch black darkness.

"**You look like a deer in headlights,"** the voice mocked again. The silhouette crawled along the ceiling and down the wall. It leaned in towards Eddie's face and spoke in a slightly feminine voice. **"Hi there, Eddie. Did you miss me?"**

Eddie's eyes beamed over the feminine Venom figure in front of him. He said something through his webbed mouth, but it just came off as a mumble.

"**I know, speechless aren't you?"** She-Venom jumped down on the floor and stood in front of Eddie with a smile on her face. **"Pretty, aren't I?"**

Eddie mumbled something incoherent through his webbed mouth. She-Venom cut his legs free and he got up and spoke more incomprehensible sentences before She-Venom finally reaches her limit on him talking. She-Venom grabs the web and rips it off of Eddie's mouth without hesitation. Eddie groans in discomfort and pain as his skin around his lips turn red and turn cold due to the sudden exposure to the warmth. She-Venom flips on the light switch, making it easier for Eddie to see what She-Venom actually looked like.

Like her name, She-Venom was essentially, the female version of Venom with feminine features that Eddie's eyes were drawn to. Eddie looked up at She-Venom, still slightly shocked to see Venom take over another host, a female host.

"**Don't you recognize me?"** She-Venom asked in a seductive way.

"Anne?" The first name that pops into his skull when he thought of a female replacement for him. She-Venom nodded, confirming his suspicious and before he could say anything, She-Venom cut Eddie's hands-free and looked at Eddie with intensity. "I can't believe it. I can't believe, I just can't believe it."

"**What's not to believe, Eddie?" **She-Venom asked in a mock offensive.** "You should be grateful that I came down here to save your skinny ass."**

"It's not that I am not grateful, it's just that, I can't believe it?"

"**Can't believe what?"**

"I can't believe that Venom is still alive and he bonded to my ex-wife."

"**Maybe this is a rom-com horror that was meant to happen. You didn't even thank me once for saving you."**

From her sentences that Eddie gathered, it appeared that Venom was letting Anne do all the talking, acting completely independent on the conversations. "I'm sorry for not saying thank you. I am very grateful for you saving my life. But right now, I gotta go find Kasady. He left me in this supply closet, went looking for a chemical substance called 'Bane.'"

"**Bane?"** She-Venom asked like she was lost.** "What do you mean, Bane?"**

Eddie opened the supply closet and walked out into a deserted hallway with the lights flickering on and off like a horror movie. He walked forward, stopped a few feet from the door to look down the hallway. He turned to look down the opposite path of the hallway. Both results were no Carnage in sight, not even blood in sight. "Where are we exactly, Venom?"

"**Cross Technological Enterprises,"** She-Venom answered with a shrug.** "We followed your scent here."**

"Cross Technological Enterprises? Of all the places, this one had to be the one carrying Bane?"

She-Venom sighed in annoyance, her eyesight drifting off course for a brief second before refocusing back on Eddie. **"Can you please explain to me and Venom, what the hell, 'Bane' is? Last time I checked, we don't live in the DC world."**

"Bane is the codename for a substance that Empire State University was holding until a fire broke out at the campus and Bane was evacuated along with several other unknown substances and whatnot."

"**You still need to explain to us what Bane is exactly," **the female symbiote insisted.

Eddie decided to break it down into terms that she would most likely understand. "Carnage explained to me that substance called 'Bane' is actually a symbiote that crashed on Earth years ago, was recovered by humans, and was placed into research at ESU. Carnage then explained how the Bane symbiote is one of seventeen original symbiotes back on the planet Klyntar and each one of the original seventeen have different power, an aspect that can be passed into an individual symbiote. In Bane's case or whatever codenamed Bane's real name is, Bane has the ability of telepathy. He can control the minds of over hundreds in one city."

"**I know who that is,**" She-Venom spoke, but this time it was Venom doing the talking, not Anne. This was made clear with the darker voice, the one that sounded strikingly familiar to the voice that Eddie had in his head. **"I know exactly who you are talking about. His real name isn't Bane, it's Kraft des Gehirns. He is an incredibly powerful symbiote, but his one weakness is he can't operate without a proper host. Not like a human, but a symbiote. So he needs to establish a symbiote-symbiote relationship and it looks like Carnage is going to be his host."**

"The way how you describe him makes him sound even scarier. How does Carnage even know about him if he was born on Earth just five hours ago?"

"**All symbiotes possess Omnilegence about their home planet. Even if he was born two minutes ago, he would know everything about Klyntar's history."**

"Good to know that Carnage is a history student, but can we cut class short and find out how to take out Carnage once and for all?!"

"**Somebody's moody for their twenty-sixth birthday today," **Venom mocked.

"I'm not moody, and if I sound moody, then it's because that Carnage is going to take over the whole freaking state with mind control. He is going to rename San Francisco, Chaos Central. Now tell me how do we take him down once and for all!"

"**I know just as much as you do,"** Venom admitted. **"He was born on Earth, he pretty much has all my strengths, twenty plus upgrades, and seemingly no weaknesses. Except for soundwaves."**

"He is not a vampire hunter. He is not Blade with only one weakness, now how do we beat him?"

"**Soundwaves, that's all I can think off."**

"Didn't you see back at the hospital? We used soundwaves to separate the suit from him and he regrew another symbiote. It looks like no matter how many times we turn the volume up, he will always regenerate a new suit."

"**But there's got to be a loop. There's got to be some kind of a way we can blow him away for good."**

"We better come up with a plan quickly because right now, wherever Carnage is, he is looking for Bane or whatever his real name is and he is going to bond to him to become a god."

"**Call me crazy, but I might have an idea,"** Venom went on. **"The symbiote that he desires has the power to control the minds of not only humans but other symbiotes as well. Now granted that even if we force Carnage and Kasady to separate, he would regrow another symbiote. But here is my plan for beating him: We bond with Kraft des Gehirns first and then we force the Carnage symbiote not to regenerate over Kasady. Now that the symbiote is immobile, Kasady will be vulnerable to human physical attacks. We can push him over the edge and he will fall to death and we will command the Carnage symbiote to remove itself from Kasady's corpse and come back to us."**

"Why can't we just force the Carnage symbiote to fade away from Kasady just after bonding to Bane?"

**"We could do that, but the forceful extraction would be excruciatingly painful to both Kasady and Carnage. As sociopathic as we may be, we don't like subjecting beings to torture, even those who deserve to die."**

Eddie nodded, signaling that he understood and he was not one to plan to kill people in sadistic ways. "I guess you're right, we should go with the most painless option possible."

"**We have to keep Carnage as far away from Kraft des Gehirns as possible. We force the unbinding between Kasady and Carnage and force Carnage not to regenerate. We will kill Kasady, but Carnage will be left unharmed."**

"If this is the harmless way to attack Kasady without directly hurting Carnage, then let's do it, Venom." He then began going over the plan in his head so he knows what to do. "Separate Carnage from Kasady, bond to Bane, force Carnage not to regenerate over Kasady, and then kill Kasady and then have the Carnage symbiote separate from Kasady's corpse completely. Sounds good enough. We should get going."

"**Couldn't agree more, but first, there is one thing that we need to do first."**

Eddie had no idea whether it was Anne talking or Venom talking because the voice was too distorted to tell. Before he even had the slightest clue as to what She-Venom/Venom was talking about, She-Venom walked over to Eddie, grabbed him by the collars of his shirt, yanked him towards her, and kissed him.

Eddie was in a trance as Venom's body began shifting over to his body, slowly unbinding from Anne but the kiss continued and deepened. All of Eddie's problems seemingly disappeared from sight as he kissed Anne long and hard on the lips, feeling the love that he once thought was vanquished completely from him. Running through's Anne's mind, were not the regrets she felt, but the love that she has been missing ever since the divorce. The love that no one but Eddie Brock could match. Anne emulated Eddie's actions and wrapped her arms around Eddie's shoulders in a soft and soothing manner, smiling as they continued to kiss, their love scars now healed.

Eddie slowly broke away from the kiss, his eyes slowly opening to gaze upon her beautiful brown eyes that could pierce a man's heart with love. He smiled and backed away, feeling Venom bond to him once again. "Anne, that kiss…"

"Made the world seem like a better place."

"Yeah." He was amazed that she could read his mind. "That kiss was so beautiful.," he said softly. "I'm glad that you and I are standing here right now because if we are going to die, trying to save the world, then the last person's whose face I would see, I will always want it to be yours."

Anne was on the verge of breaking down in tears over his words, but she fought through them and kept her cheeks dry of tears. "We're going to take down Venom together."

"Anne, are you sure that's what you want? Are you sure?"

"I'm going to help you and Venom take him down."

"He almost killed you."

"He almost killed _you_ several times and you still go after him. I may not be a proficient fighter, but I can help you find Bane or whatever his name is or I can find some kind of sonic weapon. We are in a technological advancement building here. You can't look for Carnage and a sonic device at the same time. Plus, I have been in this building before. One of my defendants showed me around this building. I have a really good memory."

"Venom," Eddie called out with his head turned to the side. "Anne wants to help us. I know it may seem like she should be running for her life…"

"**Which she should,"** Venom interrupted.

"But," Eddie insisted to his symbiotic friend. "It's going to be a difficult task. We can't look for two things at the same time and Anne knows her way around this place. We are going to let her help us."

"**Do you trust her?"**

"I've been married to her, and if there is somebody I trust with my life, it's her."

"**What about me?!"** Venom said in outrage. **"I'm quite hurt.**" Or maybe he was mocking Eddie.

"And you, but a human I mean." He then gestured to Anne as he continued. "I'm pretty sure that no matter what we say to her, she will insist on helping us and this is not the battle that we should be focusing on, it's finding Bane and Carnage."

"**If that's how you want it."** The symbiote began to form over Eddie again, becoming Venom once more and looked at Anne. **"If you have a cold shiver running down your spine, then hide."**

Venom charged off down one of the halls before Anne could even respond to that statement. The only thing she did say, however, was "Kick that ginger's ass!"

Venom ran down one of the hallways, the lights continuing to flicker on and off. The place was completely abandoned, almost like a ghost town somewhat. **"We may not be able to sense Carnage because he is blocking off his sense, but there is another distinct sense that we can smell. Fear and adrenaline and it is moving fast, desperately clinging on to something with a familiar scent."**

"Can Bane or whatever it's called hide its scent?"

"**Not without a host. And right now, I am sensing this fear and adrenaline creature running up the building, ascending into the air and now running horizontally across the air, with Kraft des Gehirns at his side."**

"It sounds like someone is carrying Bane or Kraft something for us," Eddie deduced. "We should get going."

"**Carnage already beat us twice. He got away at the hospital, but he defeated us at the library."**

"At the hospital, _I_ was mostly in control and when at the library, it was mostly _you_."

"**Looks like it is going to take both of us to take him down. Let's go."**

"Let's go save the city from being named 'Carnage.'"


	9. Neunte

"**Son,"** a deep voice spoke behind Carnage.

Carnage turned and a fist punched Carnage in the face. The tendril detached itself from Carnage's arm and the ice bucket and tendril fell to the floor. Before he could look up, he was grabbed by the shoulders and thrown up into the air and landing smackdown onto the roof. Carnage finally jumps to his feet as Venom jumped onto the edge of the roof and perched down. **"Hello there, sonny boy. Did you really think that you could get rid of me so easily?"**

"**Who says I wanted to get rid of you? I just wanted to see what human being you would be squirming to before you bonded back to Eddie Brock. Who did you bond to before bonding to Eddie? Was it a strong, dumbass of a man, or a bitchy whore of a woman?"**

"**Why so misogynistic?"** Venom mockingly asked. "**Why are you never serious?"**

"**Move out the way, or I will gut you open like a fish until Eddie Brock falls out. Move out the way and let me bond to Bane."** Carnage drew scythes with both of his hands and had spikes emerge from him like porcupines. **"We going to do this the easy way or the hard way?"**

"**You know, there is something that I do not understand,"** Venom said calmly as he held a hand out to Carnage in a non-threatening manner. **"Why do you hate me so much."** He jumps down onto the roof and speaks in a soft voice in hopes to calm down Carnage. **"What is it that I have done to you? Whatever it is, I'm sorry. You're my son and the last thing I would ever want to do is hurt you."**

"**Physically or emotionally?" **Carnage deadpanned.

"**Either. I would never want to hurt you physically and I dread hurting you emotionally. Tell me what I did wrong and I will fix it."**

"**What makes you think that everything that I did is because I hold animosity against you? Could it be that I have no motive and I enjoy slicing and dicing humans like they are rotten apples?"**

"**Because I know deep down that **_**you**_** are not a killer. Cletus Kasady has infected your mind, but I do know that he is letting **_**you**_** turn the wheel like a co-pilot and you seem completely loyal to him. Why I wonder."**

Something inside of the Carnage symbiote was struck like a knife piercing a heart. He desperately tried not to let his father get to his head, trying to focus on what Kasady said about his father, but it was almost like fate that he was supposed to meet Venom up on his roof and they would talk rather than fight. The emotional distress welts up inside of him and he could no longer keep the dam of emotions from collapsing. Instead of expressing his emotional harm through crying tears of sadness, he expresses them through words. He spoke from the heart.

"**You want to stop your wondering? You left me to die,"** The Carnage symbiote expressed with great sadness in his voice that stabbed Venom's sociopathic heart with sadness. **"After falling from the meteor and we separated, I felt like you intentionally abandoned me. You left me to die in the middle of the ocean, which resorted to me into swimming to shore, only to bond with this pathetic, disgusting excuse of a human being who exhibits no emotion. I wanted to bond with someone who loved their father with all their heart, but instead, I bonded to a psychopath. **_**Forced**_** to bond with a psychopath who exhibits no feelings for his father. No sentimental memories or anything. The only thing I feel is hatred. Hatred for life, hatred for people who look at me. Hatred for you forcing me to bond to someone who forces me to hate you."**

Venom now finally understood Carnage's rage and how he was able to bond to Kasady without resistance. Kasady must've manipulated Carnage into thinking that his father had no love for him and that he should hate him. Even after Carnage bonded to Kasady, it still appears that Carnage feels something - if not love - for his father because, during the fights, it seemed that he primarily let Cletus Kasady do all the fighting while he was sitting in the passenger seat. To say the Carnage symbiote would be a victim instead of a villain would be an understatement. Carnage _was_ the victim, but the true villain here would be Venom because he failed to save his son in time from bonding with a mass murderer. He was just praying that it was the Carnage symbiote that he was talking to and not Cletus Kasady.

"**I'm sorry,"** Venom whispered from the bottom of his heart. **"I'm sorry...for everything."**

Venom watched as Carnage's hands slowly phased back from scythes to hands and his porcupine quills fading back into his mass. Carnage looks down at the ground, seemingly in regret and he shut his eyes with a sigh. Venom assumed that he was permitted to walk over to his son very slowly and try to comfort him. Try to at least hug him because that was all he wanted to do when he bonded to Eddie. Initially, he bonded with Eddie for the sole purpose of using him as an expendable host just so he could reunite with his son.

He slowly moved over to his son, who didn't seem to acknowledge him. Venom carefully wrapped his arms around Carnage's shoulders and embraced him lovingly. He puts his head on Carnage's shoulders and listens to his son's heartbeat. He hears Carnage make a sobbing noise and he embraces his father. He listened to his father's heartbeat.

The two of them never broke apart from each other for a long time, each one sobbing in remorse for what they've done to the other and tightening their embraces. Venom wasn't going to take this moment for granted; he was going to appreciate this one moment he had with his son, even if it was only going to last for one minute or less.

"**You know what?"** Carnage sobbed in Venom's embrace. He spoke when he was sure that his father was listening. **"Maybe if my host had a little more filial sentimental… a little more human love for his own daddy… some of it would've crossed over to me."** This catches Venom's attention instantly, but he froze in the hug as he listened to Carnage's next words. **"As it is, I feel nothing but cold contempt."** Carnage growled, but he hugged his father tighter for his next move and he intended to stab his father where it hurt when he said his final words. **"I hate you, Daddy."**

Venom felt two things when he heard those words utter from his son's mouth. One was emotional and the other was physical. He felt like his own heart was stabbed with a kitchen knife by a dearly beloved one. The physical pain that he soon felt was when Carnage shot out his porcupine quills and poked Venom in several different spots simultaneously. Venom groaned in pain and his arms slipped from Carnage's shoulders. He falls to the ground, the quills slipping out of his wounds and he lands hard on his back. Carnage looks down at his wounded father and cocks his head to the side, indicating interest.

"You really thought that was _me_ talking," Kasady's voice said. "No, that was the symbiote voice. I knew I shouldn't have left him as my co-pilot." The rising tone in Kasady's voice indicated anger. "I am going to savor the moment when I use your son's body to kill you, Eddie Brock, and your girlfriend, I'll eat her alive."

Venom groaned, attempting to protest as he tried to push himself up on his arms, but he was already leaking Eddie's human blood, which was equal to bleeding his symbiote equivalent blood. The one thing that motivated Venom to fight through the pain was the fact that Carnage was walking over towards the edge to shoot a tendril down to retrieve Kraft des Gehirns.

When Carnage leaned over to shoot a tendril, Venom shot a web at his right shoulder, but it was too late. Carnage had yanked the ice bucket up with Kraft des Gehirns inside. He uses one of his porcupine quills to chop the web off and turn around to face Venom with the ice bucket in front of him up to his chest level.** "Look at this, Daddy,"** Carnage goated as he forcefully ripped the cap off the hinges that bound it to the bucket.

He marvels at the yellow symbiote inside the ice bucket, cooing as if he was holding a baby. **"Wow, look at Bane over here. Or rather, Kraft des Gehirns."** He was shocked, stunned, and speechless at the same time; no possible words could describe the feeling that he has. **"The symbiotic god of brain power, slithering up the ice bucket to bond with me."** He looks at Venom with a sadistic smile on his face.** "I always knew I was a god of destruction, and now I will prove it."**

"**No,"** Venom protested as he rolled over to his side and thrust his hands into the ground to lift himself off and on to his feet. Shrugging off the pain and showing his teeth and snarling tongue at Carnage with a fierce look in his eyes. **"We won't let you destroy this world."**

Carnage chuckled at this statement and paced a few steps around Venom like he was scolding him or lecturing him. **"You really expect me to believe something like that? Let's not forget who is a god holding a god in his hands. I can control your movements even if he touches nothing else except my hand."**

"**You're no god,"** Venom growled as he focused intently on Carnage. **"You're just a demigod wannabe."**

"**Is that so,"** Carnage mocked egotistically. **"Are you going to murder your son in cold-blood like me if I was in your shoes?"**

"**It's not cold-blooded murder. I'm going to kill you, son, to put you out of your pain and misery. If anyone should kill you, it should be me; let's not forget who gave birth to you in the first place, **_**son.**_**"**

"**You wrote my birth certificate.**" Carnage looked down to see Kraft des Gehirns slither around his wrist like a snake. **"But I'm going to write your death certificate in your own blood."**

As Venom prepared his attack before Kraft des Gehirns could take over, a high pitched wave of sonics spiked through the air and nearly deafened Venom and Carnage. The two symbiotes howl in pain and desperately cover their ears in vain to block out the pain. Carnage dropped the ice bucket in the process and Kraft des Gehirns fell to the ground and was hissing in pain.

Down below in the surveillance room on the fifth floor, Anne was sitting over a dial, turning it until she felt like she hit the appropriate numbers. Some ignorant scientist left a manuscript on how to test new high-frequency antenna scanners placed on the roof and which dial on the control panel controls the level of sonic waves. Plus, there was a camera in front of her showing the figures of Venom and Carnage talking, before stabbing each other so she decided to intervene and save Venom by 'turning up the music.' Once she saw the ice bucket drop and the yellow symbiote slid away, she dialed it down and smirked as she studied Venom, who had recovered faster than Carnage and was attacking him. "Good luck you two."

Venom pinned Carnage to the edge, his upper body leaning over and he blinded Carnage by jamming his thumb into his eye. Carnage screamed in agony and kicked Venom back with both of his feet. He swings his scythe hand at Venom's face, but his father caught his arm and redirected his line of fire into his own stomach. Carnage doubled over and tried spiking out his quills again, but Venom dodged them. Venom grabbed one of the quills and ripped them out like a weed and he stabbed Carnage in the back of the head with it.

Carnage growled in anger and hit Venom in the hips with his own. He only got three feet of space away from Venom so he stands straight up, yanks the quill out of the back of his head and slashes Venom across the stomach, mirroring his wound at the hospital. Venom grabs the second incoming quill attack and redirects it to launch into a generator.

Carnage thought of the first weapon in his head and his left hand morphed into the blunt hammer weapon. He swings it across Venom's face and hits him in the jaw, transferring a tremendous amount of excruciating pain through Venom.

As if in slow motion, Venom's head snaps to the side and blood flies out of his mouth. Venom's eyes become heavy, on the verge of passing out from the pain and he sighed in exhaustion. He slowly turns his head back, his eyes half open and Carnage uppercuts Venom against his jaw with a hand morphed into a fishing hook. The fishing hook digs through the mass on Venom's jaw and the hook pierces through with the hook sticking out of his mouth.

"**Uh…"** was all he could say in a prolonged fashion like a balloon slowly being released of air. He was on the verge of blacking out, a major concussion starting to get to him. His weakened arms felt like they were boneless and they were going to detach from his body like paper.

Carnage seemed to have sensed this because he slowly retracted the hook from Venom's jaw before morphing both of his hands into a pickaxe and hitting Venom in the sides with the sharp ends. Venom grunted in pain and fell down to the ground once the tips were out of his rib cages. He fell into a fetal position and clutched his wounds like they were leaking gasoline onto a fire.

Carnage picked Venom up by the shoulders, eager for more fighting, especially when he has the upper hand, and he punches Venom across the face with his bare hands twice and kicks him in the chest and knocks him back. Venom rolls over, but he lands on his knees barely within an arm's reach of the yellow symbiote crawling away to an air duct in the floor. Venom casts one quick glance at the yellow symbiote before looking at the charging Kasady with flails for hands, shouting a battle cry at Venom like a wolf.

Venom thrust his hands forward and shoot webs from his wrists. He webbed up Carnage and slowed him to a stop just several feet away from him. He had the webs take the form of a spider's web and made them extra sticky so Carnage the fly would be trapped. Venom licked his lips in anticipation as he watched Carnage struggle like a prisoner caught in a net, desperate to break out. A mischievous smirk was brought upon Venom's face and then this smirk grew into a wide conceited grin. But, there was one thing that separated Carnage trapped in a web to a fly trapped in a web.

Unlike flies, Carnage wasn't trying to break out, he was trying to break the webbing. He had not yet accomplished his father's ability to turn into a liquid form like a pro, but he was astonishing with improving on the spot. Instead of using the blunt hands to break through, he shoots his tendrils across the webbing to the webbing coming from Venom's wrist, stopping him from spinning any more webs. Venom squirmed in his position and groaned in disgust as he felt tiny little ant-like symbiotic figures crawl into the parts of the wrist that shoot out the webbing. He shook his hands like a person would dry their hands with no towel or dryer, but in a more extreme degree like his hands were on fire. He jumped to his feet and the mass around his arms exploded, exposing Eddie's human hands and sleeves to the cool breeze of the night and blood dropped to the ground, the ant-like symbiotic figures with them. **"Damn it,"** Venom cursed at Carnage after seeing Carnage cut through the webbing like a knife through butter. **"You jammed my webbing system!"** The symbiotic mass was working at a slow rate to morph over Eddie's exposed arms.

"**Did I, I was hoping to disrupt your human central nervous system."** Carnage shoots an arrow from his chest and out towards Venom, aiming for his head. Venom ducked out the way but in the process of trying to move to the side, Carnage kicked him in the stomach and threw him to the ground. Carnage yelled out with a grunt as he hammered a sickle into Venom's back, skewering Venom all the way through the back and to the outside of his sternum.

Venom screams in agony and arches his back as he feels the cold feeling of the sickle rip from his insides and he starts bleeding blood on the roof's ground. Venom's screamed dried out and he was shivering, his breath shaky and his eyes focusing on nothing more than the pain that was welling up inside of him to a monumental amount. His eyes were drawn towards the yellow symbiote slowly crawling towards the air duct in the floor, as slow as a snail while his ears were focusing on Carnage whistling the 'Heigh Ho' theme from _Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs._

Venom reached out towards the yellow symbiote, begging for him to crawl towards him but no words could leave his mouth. The pickaxe Carnage crushed Eddie's bare hands with his foot, leaning in all his weight and cracking the bones in his fingers; he laughed hysterically when he heard Eddie's quiet groan of pain. **"How does that feel, Eddie Brock?"**

Venom looked up at Carnage in front of him, unable to do anything physically or even say anything verbally.

"**You know, it's my birthday and it's your birthday today Eddie, so I think that we should both be given gifts."** Carnage narrowed his eyes and smiled like a maniac. **"My gift to you is today is the last day you will ever breathe air and my gift for today is I get to murder you in cold blood. To be honest, **_**Daddy**_**, this moment was always going to happen; me stomping on your hand while you lay there on the ground in a defenseless position, unable to move."** Carnage crouches down and grabbed Venom's jaw and made sure that Venom looked at him no matter what to make his point clear. **"You have really pissed me off by bringing out this symbiote's emotional side, **_**Eddie.**_** Because of your interference, when your ex-wife is my queen, I will be the husband that you never were. No, I won't be humble and kind, I will be very abusive towards her and I will make her wish that she were dead."** His tone darkened as he spoke, more of an evil pitch starting to present itself in his voice. **"I'm not going to kill you, because when your wife is begging for it… I'm going to have you murder her. When she no longer wants to live a life of agony anymore, I will make her beg for you to end her life and after that, I am going to bury you alive in her grave with her."**

Venom growled softly, some kind of unexpressed emotion that was wound up tight within Eddie now snapped and transferred into Venom. Venom looked at his murderous son, blood slowly dripping from his mouth and he ground his teeth. He was absorbing every ounce of evil that Carnage threw to him so that he could no longer categorize Carnage as his son, but as a murdering monster who just threatened to do horrible things to Anne. He slowly makes a fist with the one hand that Carnage was stepping on and his outrage expression slowly turned into a smirk, which then evolved into a smile.

"**Anne and I, we are going to have one hell of a time together." **Carnage morphed his right hand into an ax hand and used his left hand to force Venom to look directly into his eyes as he raised the ax high above his head, ready to strike down like a cobra. Venom crawled to his knees and watched with his eyes widening. The bladed hand came down on Venom and the black symbiote brought his right hand over his head to try and block the blade with his hand, but it only ended up stabbing through his bare human palm. Venom yelled in pain but held his hand still to keep the blade from piercing his skull. There was some of Venom's blood that splattered into his mouth and onto his tongue.

Carnage removed his left hand from Venom's chin and put it on his blade hand and leaned all his weight on it, the blade getting closer and closer to Venom's skull. The pain increasing in many levels as the blade got closer and closer to his skull, the very bloody tip touching Venom's forehead, but not piercing.

Carnage saw that Venom's strength was going to keep him from sticking his blade through his skull, so he improved and stomped harder on the hand beneath his foot. He could've easily shot a spike out of his chest and kill Venom instantly, but he wanted to kill his father with his own hands, his own blade. He wanted to rip Venom's skull apart with one strike so he could cheer in victory.

All the rage that Carnage caused to bubble up within Venom was finally coming to a release over the edge. Sitting on his knees, he slowly stands up, keeping his eyes on Carnage and pushing the blade farther away from him, a wicked smile forming on Venom's face as he saw Carnage's brutal facade shatter and turn on a facial expression of shock and horror.

Venom inhaled a deep breath and shot himself forward with a roar. Carnage was shoved off his feet, the blade forcing itself out of Venom's hand and he went flying back and through the air. The red symbiote flew off the roof and went crashing through an overhead window on the third floor. He smashed through the window, landing on his back hard with some glass cutting into his mass. He hit the floor with a grunt of pain.

Venom gainer flips over the edge and down onto the floor with Carnage a few feet away. Venom kicks Carnage across the jaw just as he was on his knees and Carnage rolls back several yards. He stops himself from rolling forward by thrusting his hands and knees onto the ground and jumping to his feet.

With his webbing system in his wrist jammed up and his hands still healing, he improvises and shoots three strands of webbing at Carnage's feet, shins, and waist and jumps back to yank him back like he was in a rodeo.

Carnage grunts as he falls on his back. Venom removed the webbing from his chest and shot several more strains of webbing from his heart area and up towards the ceiling above Carnage. He hauls back with all the strength in his chest to rip a chunk of the ceiling out and cause it to collapse on Carnage before he could process what was happening. The ceiling crashes down on Carnage, flattening him like clay.

The strands of webbing reverted back into Venom's chest and he smiled with a hiss. **"That looked like it hurt, Kasady. Get ready for the encore you psychopath."**

Despite being crushed to the tiniest particle, Carnage was still alive and he was barely breathing. His hands shake as he slips them through the smallest cracks on the debris trapping him and he reaches for something to pull himself out. He concentrated intently on shifting into liquid form so he could free himself. He was wishing he was a master at turning himself into a liquid form like his father as he was still getting the hang of it. Nevertheless, he successfully turned into liquid form and slithered out. Once he was free, he reverted back into his physical form, but with difficulty as his vision was spinning and his balance was off slightly.

"**Surprise!"** Venom hollered as he catapulted himself forward and kicked Carnage across the hallway and crashed into the wall so hard that a crack was left and the pipes in the ceiling above him went falling to the ground in front of him, some breaking apart. Carnage slid down to the wall without even attempting to stand up. He saw Venom coming for him, but his legs wouldn't cooperate with him to get up. This left him vulnerable to Venom's next attack.

"Go for Bane!" Eddie shouted as Venom jumped off of Eddie's body to go slithering like a snake back, the air ducts that the yellow symbiote was crawling through was Venom's destination in mind.

Eddie picked up two pipes and clanked them together, creating high pitched ringing noises that made Carnage scream in agony. He clanked them together again and saw that Carnage was slowly starting to depart from Kasady's body. "Can't handle the music?" He doesn't miss a beat and he throws one of the pipes hard to the ground to create another loud ringing noise that echoed throughout the hall and started hammering the remaining pipe in his hand on the pipes on the ground, smashing down on them to create even higher pitched sounds that were causing Carnage even more pain. He beat them like he was playing the drums and did not stop, not even after seeing Kasady's exposed face writhing in agony.

With one more hit, he smashes the pipes one last time with such force behind it that the end of the pipe shattered off, creating a sharp end like a syringe, but the lasting effects of the soundwaves finally forced Carnage to grab his head in pain and continue to scream in agony.

_Got you now._


	10. Zehntel

"You may be stronger and faster, Kasady," Eddie began. "But you know what? There is one essential ingredient that you lack." Eddie's eyes drift off course and they are drawn to an air vent on the ceiling to his right. He narrows his eyes as he watches a yellowish substance squeeze through the tiny spacing and on the outside of the grate. Venom licked his slips in anticipation upon noticing that this was actually the black Venom symbiote, but with a very dark yellow tinge to his mass. He turns back to Kasady just as his chest was exposed. "You don't have the _venom_!"

Eddie rushes towards the wall that Venom was climbing down, reaches up and touches the Venom symbiote with the tip of his middle finger. The symbiote jumps onto Eddie's hand upon recognition and travels down his arm to morph over his entire body, becoming Venom once more. Venom steps back from the wall and looks down at his new color for his physical form and grew in delight as he feels a spark of new energy course through his veins, awakening him and making him roar in triumph with his back arches and head facing up.

He turns to Kasady as the Carnage symbiote began forming over him once more after the soundwaves finally came to a stop. Venom held up one hand, his fingers bending in a crescent moon shaped way towards Carnage and he tilts his head to the side. Kasady froze up all of a sudden, the Carnage symbiote freezing its place as well, almost like it was frozen in a pack of ice. The effects of Kraft des Gehirns had begun taking over the process of using telepathy to freeze the Carnage symbiote from regenerating over Kasady's body was a success as well as freezing Kasady in his place.

"**I'm not giving you a splitting headache, am I?"** Venom mocked to Kasady. Venom raises the hand with the pipe still clung on to, and chucks it like a spear towards Kasady's exposed chest. Kasady was torn completely from the Carnage symbiote, not even batching a flicker of movement, and Kasady went flying across the hall, only to be impaled against the wall with the end of the pipe sticking out of his chest and back.

Kasady's gasps in pain and his eyes widen, heart beating racing faster than normal. He clutches his shirt while the blood went on with staining his shirt. Even if he couldn't physically feel the pain, he knew like the back of his hand that his health levels were decreasing and his breath slowly stolen from him as he hyperventilated. He forced himself to look down at his wound just before he looked up at Venom, still in a post-throwing position. A small smile was brought to his face as he noticed that Venom and Bane co-bonded with each other over Eddie and that now he possessed the symbiote god of telepathy. He could not help but admit his surprise and amazement to his enemy as his last words.

"Well done, Eddie," he praised. "Well done." His last statement was followed by maniacal laughing for several seconds, that was soon died out when his health levels slowly reached zero. Kasady tried gasping for one last gulp of air before his head finally stopped moving, his jaw dropping, and his eyes roll to the back of his head, his body limping.

Venom takes one step forward to get a closer look. He folds over a little so his eyes were at the same level as Kasady. He stood there for several seconds, unable to believe that Cletus Kasady was gone, finally dead forever and there were going to be no more deaths because of him. Venom felt proud of himself for finally getting rid of the serial killer, but a little saddened. He had no idea why he was so sad, but he knew that he was crying over Kasady's death. He looked down to the ground in shame, before he senses the Carnage symbiote breaking away from its frozen position and falling to the ground like water. Venom races over to the red symbiote and kneels down to one knee and cradles the red symbiote in his hands, holding his son close to his heart.

"**Son, are you alright?"** Venom already knew the answer. He already knew that the Carnage symbiote wasn't going to make it. He was beyond saving. Unlike Venom, the Carnage symbiote was still a newborn and newborn symbiotes are unable to survive for long after being forced to unbind from their host. Venom looked around for a host in sight, but it was almost midnight and everyone already went home. Even so, he highly doubted that he could find Carnage a host in time because Carnage's movements were already slowing down, almost like he was trapped in sand. **"No, please don't do this to me,"** Venom begged with his heart to his son. **"Please don't die on me!"** He bowed his head down sympathetically and squeezed his eyes shut so he wouldn't cry.

Carnage slowly moved up his father's arm, climbing to his shoulder before wrapping around his shoulder area like a necklace. Venom acknowledged his son by putting a hand on his son's mass and massaging him. **"Thank you,"** Carnage whispered into Venom's ear.

"**For what?"** Venom sniffled with his eyes opening and head turning to look at Carnage. **"I killed you."**

"**You didn't kill me,"** Carnage said softly to his father. **"You saved me from Kasady. You gave me a hug and you saved me from that violent man."**

"**But you're going to die."**

Carnage snuggled against his father, wrapped his body mass tighter around Venom's shoulders, practically squeezing him like a snake. Venom did nothing but continue to massage his son while the tears fell down Venom's face. **"There is one thing I would like to know,"** Carnage whispered.

"**What's that?"**

"**What is my real name? I know Carnage isn't my real name. What is my real name?"**

Venom stared intently at Carnage and whispered into his ear what name Venom gave his son. After he told his name, the Carnage said that he loved his real name and he says that even though he will have maybe thirty seconds of life left in him, he was just glad to be spending those last moments with his father.

Venom did get to tell his son that he loved him with all his heart...just before Carnage's life finally gave away.

* * *

Eight Days Later

For the past week and one day, Eddie has called April 10, 2019, his twenty-sixth birthday, as the most bizarre nights of his life, if not one of the most bizarre nights of his nights. He spent the last six hours and four minutes from six o'clock to midnight hunting a deranged serial killer while bonded to an alien symbiote, He reconnected with his estranged wife and put a stop to Cletus Kasady after all and the Carnage symbiote passed after Venom told him his real name. As for the symbiotic god codenamed Bane, or Kraft des Gehirns, Venom, Eddie, and Anne all came to a mutual agreement that a powerful being such as Kraft des Gehirns was too powerful to let loose around the city. And because Kraft des Gehirns requires a host with no specific match like Venom and Carnage do, anybody could pretty much be the symbiotic god of telepathy. So the three took upon themselves to load Kraft des Gehirns into a container, the very same container that he was originally encaged in and put him in a sack with rocks.

Several hours later, they took a plane ride over the Bermuda Triangle and tossed the container down into the ocean and it sunk in the trenches.

Back in San Francisco, with the death of Carnage, Eddie Brock and Venom's name had been cleared off the police's list and they were no longer sighted as criminals.

Eddie now sat down next to Anne on a bench in the park on a sunny afternoon on a Thursday. Eddie kept constantly checking his watch because being April 18th, today was the day that the penultimate episode of _Gotham_ airs. He's been waiting for four weeks and the one thing he is really hyped about is seeing the DC character, _Bane_ and not the yellow symbiote with the codename of Bane.

"You keep looking at that watch as if your life depended on it," Anne mocked and gently hit Eddie in the stomach with her shoulder. "You got a date?"

Eddie turned towards her and smiled with a closed mouth. "Of course I do." He decided to mock her back by pretending that _Gotham_ was actually a girl. "I have been seeing her for five years on April 25th. I used to watch her on Mondays, then the dates switched to Thursdays. Counting tonight, this will be our 99th date together."

Anne looked at him like he was crazy, "Does Venom know what girl you are referring to?"

Eddie nodded slowly and dramatically. "I'm going to introduce him to her tonight. Would you like to meet her?"

Anne put her hand on Eddie's hand and responded, "Tell you what. How about next week, on April 25th, when it is your 100th date with this 'girl', then I will pay her visit and get to know her."

"Well," Eddie cocked his head. "If that's the case, then you should go back and look over the first 99th dates we've had before jumping to the 100th date. It should take only about a week."

"**That's real tact of you,"** Venom's voice growled in Eddie's head. **"Using your favorite show to make your already taken girl think you are already taken."** He clicked his tongue as if disapproving him into doing a dumb thing. **"If you want her to think that you are taken, put a ring on your finger."**

Eddie's eyes trailed down briefly as he listened to Venom's voice. "We could do that," he supported, albeit unsure. "Where would we get something like that?"

"**I can think of places where women won't be wearing any rings: Whorehouses, churches, disco parties, and prisons. Ideally whorehouses, but we could go to prison and eat some heads off like candy apples because no one is going to help when we lick their scalps like popsicles."**

Eddie licked his lips and groaned in disgust. "You have a sick sense of humor."

"Who are you talking to?" Eddie tilted her head to the side, studying Eddie hard. "Is that Venom? What is he saying to you?" She watched as Eddie cringed in his seat in discomfort. She could tell that Venom said something repulsive to Eddie by the way he is shrugging his shoulders and sticking out his tongue like he ate something sour.

"He is going into pretty graphic detail on how he is going to put sour patch candies on human brains and eat them. Even the way he describes the taste is making me secrete saliva."

"**I see I have got your tastebuds started up and ready to run."**

"If Venom was an author, guaranteed he could make readers cringer with only one paragraph."

"**I'll be the next Stephen King."**

"Now he's talking about being the next Stephen King." Eddie turned away from Anne to whisper something to Venom. Anne tried listening on the conversation but Eddie whispered so softly, you have to be within half an inch of his mouth to be able to hear him. "Never heard of the author before."

"How is Venom treating you?" Anne asked as she rested her head on Eddie's shoulder like a pillow. "He's not bullying you or treating you the way you don't deserve to be treated, right?"

Eddie put his left hand around Anne's shoulder and rested his head on Anne's head, his cheek connecting to his scalp. "He's the occasional jokester every once and a while. He makes fun of my pale skin, he makes fun of the fact that I have to sneak out of my house every time he goes out because of the paparazzi."

Ever since Venom and Eddie's name had been cleared and Cletus Kasady plans were posthumously exposed to the public, Anne's firm rehired her for her original job and gave her big cases to work on, As for Eddie, he had gotten his reputation back and reinstated on _The Eddie Brock Report._ While he still had some time off before he went off to investigate a group calling themselves, The Redeemers, spotted in Auckland, New Zealand, he spent his few days off with Anne.

"Aww…" Anne mocked. "Do you need me to beat him up for you?" She laughed a little, which made Eddie laugh a little. Her smile slowly died out when she remembered that Eddie has to leave for a different country in a different continent soon. She wrapped her arms around Eddie's chest like a mama bear and she asked Eddie when he was leaving the country.

"I have booked a one-way flight to Auckland, New Zealand which will be leaving in…" He looks at his digital wristwatch. "On the twenty-first." That meant he had only three more days left to spend with Anne. "Before you know it, I will be spending three days in Australia, interviewing a group calling themselves The Redeemers. What an ugly name, doncha think?"

"Can I come with you?" Anne asked abruptly. "Do you think that I could join you on your business trip?"

Eddie shifted slightly in his seat but did not move much because he didn't want to move Anne from sleeping on his shoulder. "You don't want to go with me; It will be _nothing_ but work. You and I probably won't be able to go to that one restaurant places that exist only in Australia that we've always wanted to go to."

"I'll be your audience," she suggested. "Or, since you are investigating a group, maybe you should have a defense attorney in case they prove to be psychopaths or they want to kill you. We could put them away."

He laughed a little over his statement, and he patted her on the head. "That's why it's better if you stay here. If they are killers, then I don't want you in the crossfire."

"And I don't want _you_ in the crossfire," she rebutted.

Eddie rubbed her head in an attempt to calm her down and he could only hope it was working. He wanted to say not to worry about him, but from he learned from three years of living with her, it's that regardless of the woman, whether you know them or not, you never tell a woman to not worry. That and that is also what his mother always told him. "Well, I have Venom to protect me."

"**If those Redeemers come across us, then they're gonna want to change their names to The Regretters."** Venom laughed at his own joke, which started to irritate the living crap out of Eddie. **"How does that sound, Eddie? Would you like me to go into greater detail about gutting them open and eating their intestines like spaghetti?"**

"Don't be going into any details, Venom," he insisted to his parasitic friend. He looked back at Anne and asked her Dan was doing. "Is he still in the hospital?"

"He checked out yesterday," she answered. "He was just glad he was a doctor."

"Why?"

"Because he got a discount on the bill."'

The two break out into laughter, Eddie folding over and laughing softly. Anne chuckled and hit him playfully on the shoulder.

"That Dan man, he is hilarious." Underneath his facade, he was still fuming over Dan being the one who stole Anne from him. But he was a man with a code of honor and the only thing keeping him from eating Dan's brain is the fact that he is a doctor and people need doctors in order to survive. Especially innocent people. "For our 'taste' at least. I trust that he can take care of you."

Anne looked up at him, not understanding what he was saying. "What are you saying."

Eddie then began to explain himself. "Because of who I am, it is better if we stayed apart." He knew that she would be protesting and trying to rebut his claim, but he made it clear what his intentions were. "I love you, Anne. But the life that I am about to lead is not one that you should be involved in. After today, I'm going to use these powers to save people, protect the innocent. If my enemies found out about you, I could never forgive myself. We could keep within minimal contact with each other, but we can't live together. Trust me, it's better this way."

Anne closed her eyes and rested her head against his heart area, making sure that she comprehended everything that he said. She knew where he was coming from. She knew that if he was going to become a vigilante, then that meant that they couldn't stay together for the aforementioned reasons. He would be worried about her, but she would be worried a lot more about him because he will be running directly into the line of fire. "What about you?" she asked, just to make sure that this was what Eddie wanted. She was able to accept his ex-husband's wishes, but she just wanted to make sure that this was the path that Eddie intended to go down one hundred percent. The point of no return. "If you are going to become a vigilante, are you willing to lead a double-life?"

"Of course I am," he answered softly. "Growing up, I have always wanted to be a superhero like Iron Man, and when I tried to save everyone at that In-And-Out Burger where Dylan died, I couldn't because I was just a regular human being. But now that I have an alien lifeform attached to me, giving me powers that could actually be used to stop criminals, I can't let them go to waste. We may have lost a son, both Venom and I and you, but now we have the chance to make up for all the losses by using these powers to save other Dylans out there, preventing people from becoming suicidal, giving people second chances before they become someone like Cletus Kasady. We could actually make the world a better place. But, we are going to have enemies, some regular humans, some probably symbiotic and we want to make sure that you stay out of the crossfire. Please bear with me, Anne. Don't put yourself at risk for me."

Anne snuggled against Eddie and grabbed his hand, entangling her fingers in his fingers. She was slowly taking in the message that from now on, it was just going to be her and it was no longer going to be her and Eddie. Then she got to thinking how if she never cheated on Eddie, then she never would've indirectly driven him to commit suicide and bonding to Venom. So in a way, everything that happened from six-ten to midnight fourteen on April 10, 2019, is all because of her. She was indirectly responsible for what happened, so she has got to pay Eddie back somehow and that was making sure that she would live another day to see each other again. She closed her eyes and listened to Eddie's heart, feeling Venom move across Eddie's zipped up jacket to rub against her face. She smiled and she tapped Eddie on the knee before looking at him. "Just promise me one thing."

Eddie tilted his head to the side in curiosity. "You name it; anything at all."

"You go on a date with me to Alfred's Steakhouse."

Eddie leaned in and kissed Anne on the lips. "Consider it done," Eddie said confidently.

* * *

Eddie wanted to keep walking forward and cross the street, but Venom kept on insisting on staying to pet a wiener dog on the snout. Venom really loved that dog and forced Eddie down onto his knees to kiss the long-bodied dog on the ears. Eddie spat dog hair out his mouth once he started choking on the hair. Eddie rubbed his mouth with the back of his hand before petting the dog one last time and waving the owner goodbye.

Eddie walked across the street where he conversed with Venom.

"I can see that you really like dogs."

"**They are so cute; I love them. Can we get one?"**

Eddie chuckled at his friend and waved at a group of passing teenage girls. "We'll see about that." He stops to take a selfie with a young boy and his father before he marched on. "Tell you what, we can get a dog if we come to an agreement."

"**An agreement? Like, who's going to give it a bath every month?"**

"No, more like a set of rules. You're an alien symbiote and you need to feed on brains to survive, but you can't just go around eating anybody you want."

"**We can't?"** Venom asked as if he had done something wrong. **"Even if we were really hungry?"**

"Do you think that is something that Anne would want?" Eddie shook his head for Venom. "Hell no she wouldn't. So that is why we are going to have to set some rules that we will never break no matter what."

"**Okay, go on."**

"Rule number one: You are only allowed to hurt, kill, very possibly eat, very very bad people. Rule number two: We will use our powers to save people, never to shame people or make them feel bad."

"**Those rules sound easy enough. Are there any trick questions in there?"**

"Trick questions?" Eddie reached into his inner jacket pocket to pull out a Snickers bar. About three days after the Carnage incident, Eddie discovered due to his love for chocolate, Venom has a huge heart for Snickers bars and Eddie bought his friend an industrial amount of Snickers bars just for him. They still got like two dozen more bars. After taking a bite of a Snickers bar, he heard Venom sigh in pleasure, somewhat similar to when a person is hot and they have cold water poured onto their forehead. "What kind of trick questions?"

"**Like what's the safest form of sex?"**

"If this is a trick question, I have no idea."

"**Not have sex. Those sorts of trick questions."**

"Well…" He took another bite of his candy and then picks up where he left off. "No tricks questions like that. But another rule we are to follow is we are to never, ever, under any circumstances, no matter the consequences, we will never, ever, hurt, eat, or even drug, a child, baby, or pregnant woman. Regardless if they are killers or if they are products of killers. We will never, ever, hurt anyone nineteen and below. As for pregnant women, never lay a finger on them. Actually, we don't kill women at all; we kill men only."

"**I understand. We kill nobody but men. But what if we **_**have**_** to kill a woman?"**

"If there was no other choice, then we kill her. But if she was pregnant, we would have to find a third option or carve up a third option."

"**Any other rules?"**

"Yes. No hurting animals and we take care of people who are abusive to animals. Secondly, we must keep our identity a secret. Nobody can know who we are or else Anne will be at risk. Not just Anne, but other people we love. Understand?"

"**Understood, now that we are full and satisfied, can we go for a swing across the city?"**

"Sure thing." Eddie threw the wrapped in the nearest trashcan and moved towards the closest alley. He makes sure that no one is looking before he starts his climb up the wall, Venom's form slowly forming over his fingertips.

_What is a superhero?_

Eddie climbs up the fire escapes, swinging from one bar to the next like a monkey. He grabs one bar and does a pull-up jumper to the next bar.

_Does a superhero need to have a cool costume or a fan base?_

Eddie climbs onto the roof of the twelve-story building and crawls like a spider across the ground of the roof. The black symbiote took over Eddie's body from his waist down.

_Does a superhero need to have a cool name or some kind of moral code? Do all superheroes have to follow a no-kill rule?_

Eddie perches down on the opposite edge of the roof, his entire body covered in the black ooze except for his face. He looks down and caresses his white spider chest symbol.

_Although the name 'Venom' sounds badass, the only thing a superhero needs is to do what's necessary. And that is why we are better than that spider punk in New York. We're not heroes._

The black ooze covers Eddie's face and Eddie becomes Venom once more. He shoots out a web and swings across the city, soaring the skies like an eagle.

_**We are Venom.**_

* * *

**And that is the end of another story. I was happy to write this fanfic after seeing the Venom movie and I gotta say, I am proud of how this turned out. I hope you guys enjoyed reading and if you guys didn't, then that's okay. But please review and constructive criticism is acceptable. Once again, thank you all for reading and I'll see you soon.**

**Currently, two more stories set in this universe are being written. The first one will be published sometime in October and they will both be prequels to Homecoming and Lethal Protector.**


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